Second Bloom
by Just Subliminal
Summary: Six year old Haruno Sakura was short, skinny, and high-pitched to a painful degree when she could be goaded into raising her voice. The twenty-two year old Haruno Sakura was cursing her younger self. Still, she had a whole life to get ready for. Again. AU, done really, really, really slowly. (The Great Grammar Clean-Up Edit of 2012-13 is In Progress.)
1. D o O v e r

This is AU. **This is AU.** _THIS IS AU._ Have I said it enough now?

* * *

Haruno Sakura was a Gemini; that is to say, an air sign. She acted on her whims, often without thinking too hard on it for fear of too much indecision, and her preferences changed so often that it was better to just get her something new than to get her something that you thought she liked. For example, when she was seven years old, her best friend was Ino, her favorite color was baby blue, and there wasn't a day that went by where she didn't eat at least one box of strawberry pocky.

When she was twelve years old, Ino was her worst rival, her favorite color was red, and strawberry pocky made her grimace; she was more of a vanilla or milk flavor kind of person, if she wasn't having umeboshi.

At eighteen, Ino was her lover of two years, she thought that green went with her eyes, and typically had a deep dislike for anything sugary after her first (and only) dental surgery. No more root canals for her, and no cavities, and certainly no more sore gums. That chapter of her life was over and done with.

As a Gemini, Sakura was also more astute than most. Her observational skills were unrivaled when it came to field medic operations, she could spot the way some people were feeling from almost a block away, and when it came to sensitive secrets (or juicy gossip,) it was easy for her to pick out what was _really_ going on. This particular quality of hers tended to frustrate both her enemies and her friends.

Naruto hated the fact that she understood him so easily, even when he didn't understand himself. It pissed Ino off that Sakura could always tell what rumors were fact from fiction, mostly because she was always correcting the blonde. Most Oto-nin were wary of three things about her: her fist, her smile, and her ability to turn traps back on them. It was no real wonder that she had made jounin at sixteen.

As smart as she was, though, nothing could explain to Sakura why she woke up one morning to a very sunny, very blue room.

When she came into consciousness, something immediately felt off. Like any good ninja, she remained exactly where she was, kept her eyes closed and spread out her senses. She didn't smell anything strange, just a faint hint of jasmine, which might or might not be Ino. There was no body, warm or cold beside her, or anywhere within twenty feet of her. She could sense two weak chakra signatures, civilians maybe, and one that seemed high chuunin or low jounin level. What was going on?

After determining that she wasn't in any immediate danger, she slowly opened her eyes, taking in the strangely familiar room she was in. The walls were light blue, and the ceiling was decorated with those glow in the dark stars that many children used as a nightlight in the Leaf. It looked very much like a little girl's room, complete with stuffed animals on the bed, several cute dresses visible from the open closet doors, and a variety of flowery or pink designs everywhere.

It looked a lot like her room had when she was younger.

_**It **_**is**_** your room, dumb-ass,**_ came the ever-familiar voice of herself from the back of her head. _**Knock some braincells together and remember your last assignment from Godaime-sama.**_

_My last assignment?_ Sakura wondered, slowly sitting up in the bed and tucking her hair behind her ear. She paused. "Why are my bangs in my face?" She wondered aloud, blinking. "They haven't been like this since..." She froze.

Time seemed to slow down for a moment, or maybe her thoughts sped up; she didn't know which. There was a sudden influx of pictures and words in her mind, creating an alarming amount of pressure on her brain. A lot of it made no sense to her; there was her third birthday party, where she cried because her father was out on a diplomatic mission, and her first visit to the library, where she truly fell in love with books... But then, she saw Naruto and Sasuke arguing on the bridge, and Naruto speaking to her with a calm smile and the low baritone his voice had developed into...

...and there was the solemn faced Tsunade on the eve before the massive combined armies of all the shinobi nations stood up for their last stand against the remnants of Akatsuki and Uchiha Madara, intent on either taking them out or going to their deaths while trying. Even together, all their forces might as well have been out-numbered, and it was decided that she would go with her 'final resort'; a simple looking scroll.

Sakura remembered her instructions; read it, memorize it, perform it, and learn how to keep a secret.

"Oh god."

* * *

The six year old Haruno Sakura was short, skinny, and high-pitched to an almost painful degree when she could be goaded into raising her voice. Her shyness was well known both in her home and in the civilian school she had attended before beginning at the Academy. She didn't walk anywhere as much as she _shuffled_, and though she almost always knew the answers in school, she rarely ever raised her hand. She didn't even raise her head, most of the time, and if she did, the long bangs she kept down to her nose kept anyone from seeing most of her face.

The twenty-two year old Haruno Sakura was cursing her younger self. When she first went to the bathroom and looked into her four foot tall, gap-toothed reflection, it was all she could do not to scream and go crazy trying to blow dry her hair into it's future (former?) bouncy, luxurious state, out of her eyes and more importantly, her mouth. With the dubious coaching of her inner self, however, she was forcibly calming down.

Between frustration at being too short to reach things, anger when she realized all the things she'd have to accomplish _again_, and a short, profound awe as she thought of all the things that hadn't and maybe _wouldn't_ happen in the future, Sakura found herself thinking of what she'd been like at this age, besides reclusive, shy, and fast to cry. She had always been book smart, and she was still respectful of her superiors (no Kakashi yet!), but what had her daily routine been? What time was she supposed to go down to breakfast?

As if being a child had awakened her memories, bits and pieces of her past (present?) were returning to her. Saturday morning cartoons, her love of cats of any type, the childish crush she'd had on her civilian teacher before becoming interested in Sasuke at the Academy...

The biggest shock, though, arrived when she went downstairs to breakfast.

After washing and dressing with some care, unused to the shorter limbs after such a long time, Sakura had checked her clock and realized that it was only seven in the morning. Something in her mind whispered that it was breakfast time, and the rumbling of her stomach confirmed it, so she began making her way down the stairs. She was eager to see Haruno Nadeshiko without worry lines on her forehead, and her father Daisuke as he had looked before the first Oto invasion left him crippled...

"Morning, squirt!" came a lively tenor from behind her.

But she'd forgotten about her older brother, Jinya, who'd been dead thirteen years in her memory. Sakura found herself standing there dumbly, looking up into her brother's equally mint green gaze and the fluffy white hair he'd inherited from their father, the smile she hadn't seen since a jounin came to their door when he was fifteen to pick him up for a mission and never brought him back...

"What's wrong, princess?" Jinya asked with a worried expression as he rubbed soothing circles into her back.

Belatedly, Sakura realized that she was crying, or rather, _sobbing_ into her brother's shoulder as he held her and rocked her gently in a practiced motion. "Y-you're _alive_, y-you w-were _dead_! Onii-chan!" Her words were muffled by her own snot, her face being buried in his earthy smelling tunic, and the pure high-pitched squeakiness of her voice, but he understood her somehow.

Hushing her gently, Jinya pressed a light kiss to the side of her head. "No, no, I'm right here, Sakura-chan. It was just a bad dream. Shh, it's okay..."

That was how her parents found them.

In the end, Sakura spent the day at home with her big brother, who skipped training just to stay with her and keep her reassured. They ate strawberry pocky together, read stories, and napped on the couch for a few hours. When their mother returned from work and their father stopped in to pick up his things before being sent out of village, they ate a quick dinner together, talking and laughing like it was just a normal day.

Jin put her to bed that night.

"Onii-chan?" Sakura questioned quietly, turning on her side to look at him as he closed the storybook.

"Yes, Sakura?" Jin asked, placing The Tale of the Lady Ninja on a nearby shelf.

"I'm gonna be a shinobi too."

With a surprised look on his face, he turned back around, blinking at her. "Oh really? When did you decide that?"

"...Today." She bit her lip. "I'm gonna be a medic-nin. So... I can heal you, okay? And if we go on a mission together, we can protect each other..."

He smiled gently, then planted a kiss on her forehead. "That sounds like a great idea. Maybe we can go to the library after training tomorrow, and I'll help you pick out some books on medic-nin, alright?"

She beamed at him. "Thank you, onii-chan. Good night."

"Good night, princess.."

When the door closed and she was left with just her glow in the dark stars for light, Sakura thought about her day and what she'd decided to do. She wouldn't just save the Leaf. She'd save her brother too. No matter what it took.

_**Go to sleep, idiot,**_ came inner-Sakura's bidding, strangely subdued. _**We've got things to do. We need to plan and we've got to have a clear head for that.**_

"Yeah," she whispered into the darkness. "Good night..." With that, she closed her eyes and willed herself to sleep. She had a whole life to get ready for, after all.

* * *

Let's just throw this in here again: **This is AU.** Other than that, though, thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	2. O b s e r v a t i o n

Yes, this is still AU.

* * *

Realistically, Sakura knew that most situations, when looked at through a child's eyes, were radically different in an adult's view. The simple fact of the matter was that children were innocent and lacked the experience and the information necessary to interpret a situation the way an adult did. As such, she had completely expected that she would be surprised about a lot of things as she went about her 'final' mission of saving the Leaf.

Somehow though, actually feeling the surprise still sent a continuous shock to her system.

She had seen a lot of things in her two weeks as a six year old girl. She saw how relaxed the ANBU patrols were compared to her time, or even during the Chuunin Exams. She saw how few jounin were actually in the Leaf; she noticed the way certain stores had higher or lower prices, or the way shinobi outposts, in particular, were harried. The Uchiha fan was practically everywhere she looked, because it was still two years before the military police of the village became severely depleted due to the clan's slaughter.

It took her a bit of thought, but she also noticed the way the atmosphere was somehow the same as it had been after the first Oto invasion, wary and tired but still just a bit hopeful. This confused her until she tracked her memory to October 10th, just five years ago, the date of the Kyuubi's attack. They were still recovering from what was, even sixteen years from her present, considered the most devastating attack in the Leaf's history.

That made her think of Naruto.

Now that she thought about it, she hadn't really noticed he existed until she started at the Academy. Sakura had found herself wondering how anyone could miss such a loud, boisterous boy, especially dressed the way he was. He was a troublemaker, and it was hard _not_ to pay attention to him, truthfully. She had tried to remember if he went to the civilian Academy before the shinobi Academy, but she couldn't. She also couldn't remember who had raised him, or where he had lived, what he had liked to play, or _anything_ really. She didn't know anything about him until their last year in the Academy, when he'd transferred into her class and so boldly declared his interest in her.

When she thought hard, she realized that even though she understood him effortlessly in the future, she didn't actually _know _much of anything about him. She didn't even know his birthday until she asked after her sixteenth birthday party, when she realized that she had never been to one of his. Did he even have birthday parties?

What kind of friend had she been if she didn't know anything about him?

With a resolve to find out everything she could, the pink-haired girl started to keep an eye out for him. It was a real shock when she realized that he was actually _in her class_. She had noticed first noticed this during gym; there was a very quiet boy with bright blonde hair, cerulean eyes, and a calm face who always stood at the end of the line for exercises, going last and rarely even putting effort into them. Outside of gym, he wore black shorts, white sneakers with red laces, and a white shirt with the Leaf spiral in red on the front.

She would have thought it was someone else if it weren't for the three whisker markings on each of his cheeks.

But it didn't make any sense! How could Naruto be like this as a child, when he grew up to be so... So... _Bright_? What could have happened to make him change his attitude so completely?

_**Unless it never changed, **_inner Sakura pointed out. _**Doesn't he remind you of the way Naruto was in the future? All pleasant to be around and almost neutral-colored?**_

_But... Why would he even act the way he did when we were twelve then? What was the point?_ Sakura mused. She was currently sitting on a bench and waiting for Jinya to pick her up from school, as he always had before he... Ah. Even now, she couldn't bring herself to have the thought.

_**He's always been a better shinobi than anyone ever thought. Rule no. 23: A shinobi must never show his or her true emotions. Emotions are a liability on the battlefield,**_ the voice she would have in the future recited in monotone.

_But this isn't a battlefield..._ Before she could ponder further, her senses picked up a shunshin behind her. Sakura had found that even though physically, she was still as weak as any other six year old, her mind was just as sharp as ever. It only took a few days to train her senses to pick up any chakra emissions around her again, and her chakra control, though shakier than before, was still considerably fine. Of course, she didn't have nearly as much chakra _now_ as she had before, or later, or whichever was the proper term for that. Her chakra wasn't even at her initial genin level, which was weak in itself.

Turning slightly on the bench where she sat, the girl blinked upon sighting a strangely short, crow masked ANBU staring up into the large oak tree behind her. _What is he doing_? Sakura wondered, noting the way the ANBU shifted slightly on his feet, as though growing impatient. Suddenly, though, the leaves rustled, and a white blur dropped out of the tree, right into the ANBU's waiting arms.

Her breath caught slightly when she realized that it was _Naruto_ who was now holding the Crow's hand, just before they disappeared in another shunshin, leaving a scattering of leaves across the ground as the only sign that they'd been there.

Why was Naruto being escorted home by ANBU?

* * *

"How was your day, Naruto-kun?" came Crow's relatively deep voice as they walked. "Did you learn anything interesting?"

They turned a corner in the white walled halls of Base Four, also known as the ANBU dormitories, a rest and refueling place for the time between missions. Naruto got a wide smile on his face when the silence was finally broken. "It was fine, Crow-san. We got to do tumbles in gym, but math and reading were boring. I already know how to multiply, and I read the _whole_ book about Goldilocks already. It was a stupid book."

Something in Crow's voice indicated amusement when they stopped in front of a door. "I see. Perhaps we should go to the library and find something better for you to read then, ne?" He knocked once, then twice, and then once again. This was a familiar pattern to Naruto; it sounded just like the song to 'Quack Didioso,' a game that a lot of girls in his class played during recess.

The door unlocked and Naruto kept himself quiet out of habit when they entered the small office belonging to the current Head of ANBU, known as Inu-san even though everybody recognized Hatake Kakashi's hair on sight. It was more of a formality to call him by his mask than anything else.

"Crow-san. Naruto-kun. Good afternoon." Kakashi absently shuffled some papers on his desk as he looked at them, dark gray eyes gleaming through the holes of the mask. "How did you do on your exam, Naruto-kun?"

"I got a B+. I'm not really good remembering all the dates for all the important stuff," Naruto explained, frowning slightly. "But why does the date even matter?"

Neither of the masked men thought the date mattered mattered much at all, and so they decided not to comment. "It's good that you got that grade, Naruto-kun. Now, I need you to step outside for a little while so Crow can debrief me."

"Okay." This was routine, so Naruto turned around and exited the room the way he came, taking up a position on the left side of the door. His eyes roved over the plain cream and off-white walls and floors of the hall, before stopping on a figure making it's way closer to the isolated office at a sedate pace. He decided to count how many ANBU and building staff made their way by until Crow came out to take him to either the common room or back outside.

Naruto had lived in the ANBU dormitories for as long as he could remember. He thought that maybe, he had lived in an orphanage at first, and somebody here had adopted him. Or maybe the whole unit had adopted him. He wasn't really sure. If he tried to think on it too hard, all he ever got was a very painful headache, so he usually decided to be content with what he had and stop thinking about what 'could be.'

What he had was a very big family, even though he didn't know what any of them looked like, or even what their actual names were. He had a room of his own, a bathroom of his own, and all the playmates he could ever want (when they weren't tired from missions, at least.) Even if some of them didn't really like him, they all treated him like he was a regular kid, and that was a lot better than he usually got in the village. In the village, it was hard to even play in the park without being scared of the adults staring at him. They had mean faces.

And of course, nobody in ANBU lied to him. There were a lot of things they said were 'classified,' like why the adults stared at him so meanly, or why he was allowed to wander around ANBU HQ unsupervised but not the dormitories, but they didn't make things up. And sometimes they let him in on secrets, like how he could make himself run faster with his chakra, or where the different hiding spots were in the Leaf, so he supposed they made up for keeping some things from him. He liked living with them.

"...can go out to eat once you finish all your homework, Naruto-kun."

Blinking, the small blonde looked up only to find that Crow was standing over him in what Naruto called his 'paying attention' stance, which meant that his head was tilted down towards Naruto and he'd folded his arms behind his back. "Oh! Okay, Crow-san. Can we go to the library instead though? I have to give back the Goldilocks book and the one for history about the Old Man in the tower. Did you know I got a hundred on my report? It was two and a half pages long. Takato-sensei said it was well written."

"That's very good, Naruto-kun." Crow watched the boy beam at him, showing off his bright teeth as he so rarely did. "We can go to the library and then eat, if there's time. Neko-san is going to meet us at the ramen stand in three hours, so you'll need to finish quickly with your homework if you want to make it to the library."

"Do you have another mission?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Indeed. I leave at midnight. But first I need to visit my little brother. It's his birthday tomorrow and I won't be here."

"Did you get him a really cool present?"

"A bokken and a practice shuriken set. So long as I'm not too busy, I will show him how to properly wield a ninjato and shuriken. I believe that's what he wanted for his birthday."

"Wow, that's so cool!" Naruto wanted someone who would teach _him_ anything he wanted, but it probably wouldn't happen. Everyone was too busy in ANBU. Still, there were books, and he could ask questions and have them answered. That was enough.

"Let's head to the Common room," Crow spoke, holding out his hand for Naruto to take. "The faster you finish your homework, the faster we can get to the library."

"Okay."

* * *

Yay, end of chapter two.


	3. P u z z l e P i e c e s

Wow, I really didn't like this chapter. And no, I didn't mess up their ages by accident.

* * *

The Leaf's main library was strategically positioned in the south end of the village; it was at an equal distance from the Clan district in the east and the civilian/market sector in the west, and also in a direct line of sight from the western gate. It had the advantage of being a particularly tall building and, due to its conspicuous structure and the bright flags proclaiming its position, it made for a very discreet guard tower set in plain sight, and that could see everything in the village that the Hokage Tower didn't at that.

Its position was also chosen because it catered to both civilians and shinobi. It housed a plethora of books, ranging from research materials to fiction to D-Rank and low C-Rank technique scrolls from around the five great nations, regularly contributed to by the Leaf's shinobi forces. There was a section for children, a section for Academy students, a separation of sections by rank in the ninja ladder, and a floor dedicated entirely to civilian materials. As one of the largest libraries in all of the shinobi territories, there was almost nothing that couldn't be found there.

The first time she had ever visited the library, Sakura had fallen in love with it. And that was when she could barely read and had no interest in anything besides 'The Tale of the Lady Ninja', which was a children's book that was more pictures than anything else. She had been amazed that the entire book series could be found in one place, with multiple copies so she didn't have to share with any of the other children clambering to get the book. It was quite frankly amazing back when she was just four years old.

Now, however, she was 6 (22), almost 7 (23), and it was all she could do not to abandon Jinya and devour every last bit of the resource she had completely forgotten about after becoming a genin. It was hard to stay next to her somewhat amused brother as her eyes kept jumping from shelf to shelf, looking at all the easy jutsu she'd never thought to learn, every reference book and encyclopedia she'd thought of and never cracked open, and all the beautiful _resources_ that she very suddenly had a dozen different uses for.

That lasted just until she spotted Naruto standing on tip-toes to slide books onto the counter where the librarian worked. This was a new surprise; Uzumaki Naruto was in the library, returning books, which meant he'd been reading books... _And by the looks of them, they're not baby books either,_ Sakura thought, half-surprised and all approving.

"Sakura-chan, if you want, you can stay over here and I'll go pick up two or three books on medic-nin for you," Jin spoke, interrupting her train of thought.

The girl whirled back around to look up at her brother, an embarrassed blush spilling across her features as she realized that he had caught her staring. "Um..." In a way that reminded her of Hinata, back in her old academy days, Sakura began poking the tips of her fingers together and staring at the ground. "That would be nice..."

With a quiet laugh, Jin ruffled his little sister's hair, taking satisfaction in her disgruntled huff at the action. "Alright then. I'll be back in ten minutes or so. Go ahead and talk to your little friend." With that, he turned and started off towards the more shinobi-oriented section of the library, moving at a leisurely place. In his mind, he was calculating exactly how much time it would take for his sister to consider going up to the boy, then gather the courage for it, and of course actually complete the action. As odd as he'd noticed Sakura acting since her nightmare two weeks ago, one thing about her never changed; she was still a cautious little turtle.

After watching her brother meander off for a moment, Sakura turned back around and took a moment to scout out her target again. She found him quickly. Naruto had returned his books and was now standing contemplatively in a deserted row in the children's section, looking at books more suited to nine and ten year olds. _Should I go over to him?_ Sakura thought, unconsciously confirming her older brother's thoughts on what she'd do. _I want to talk to him. No, I __**need**__ to talk to him._ Then she had a thought; this Naruto was so different from the one she knew, what if he didn't like her? What if she'd done something she didn't remember to him and he hated her?

_**What if you stopped asking questions and just went over? **_Inner Sakura interrupted before the questioning could go on much longer. Sakura couldn't help but flush at her silliness; how would she know if she never tried?

Gathering her courage, the green-eyed girl clenched her tiny fists in determination and walked over to Naruto, stopping close to his shoulder. _He's still shorter than me_, she noticed absently. _But he'll be taller than me when we're older..._ Taking a deep breath and trying not to wring her hands in the bottom of her shirt, she waited for him to turn his eyes to her and asked, "Um... What are you looking at?"

It was strange that she felt so much anxiety about such a simple question. It wasn't even an important question, certainly nothing life changing, so why did her insides twist and flop, or shake like her small hands? Thinking of how Naruto had never been afraid to voice his opinions or ask whatever question was on her mind, she couldn't help but look at it with a different, more awed perspective. It must've been so scary...

_**But it doesn't matter if it's scary, or if he was frightened or not. All that matters is asking this question, **_her inner self couldn't help but comment, stopping her train of thought.

She agreed. Because this was the first step in becoming his friend again. Against that... Nothing else really mattered.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke seemed very much like an alien being.

Sakura had first run into him the day after his fifth birthday, coincidentally the day after she made her first overtures of friendship to Naruto. Shortly after Jinya had returned from an overnight courier mission to Tanzaku Gai, he'd taken her to the training grounds so that he could show her how to toss some blunted kunai he'd had since his second year in the Academy, roughly five years ago. They were even duller than the normal issue practice kunai. Despite the fact that she was more than competent in throwing projectiles, in her mind at least, it was surprisingly difficult to make her body react to her brain's demands. In the end, she hit one in every seven targets directly, and only two in five shots were even close to the center.

It shouldn't be hard to imagine her ire when some black haired runt with a funny hairstyle intruded upon her independent practice session by shooting out five bulls' eyes and five close hits, while lecturing her about her weak wrist movements. True to her six year old self, however, she'd shrunk in on herself at the taunting and looked at the ground, willing tears to well up in the corners of her eyes.

Surprisingly, that actually stopped the boy in his tracks.

"Ah! No! Don't cry! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to make you cry!" Like many males, the black haired boy panicked at the sight of a female in tears. "Um, stop crying, please? _Please_? I'm sorry...!"

Sakura looked up through her bangs, working her strangely large green eyes as best as she could, only to pause when she realized that she _recognized_ the boy in front of her. Uchiha Sasuke still had onyx black eyes and a strange, duck-butt hairstyle, but he was surprisingly... Round-faced. And wide-eyed. And sort of red cheeked. And munchkin-y. And _emotional_.

_**Holy fuck, **_her inner self summed it up, appearing in a faint adult outline behind the boy to Sakura's eyes, prodding intangibly at the adorable cheeks. _**He hasn't always been a prick!**_

"Um, um, here! I have some cookies!" The panicking young boy thrust out both hands with a slightly smooshed handkerchief with three oatmeal cookies in it. "Um, my mommy made them for me, and they're really, really good. I bet they'll make you feel better. Please, please take one?" He came forward hesitantly, almost shaking in his nervousness.

In a nearby tree, Jin relaxed from where he'd been ready to go after the brat who'd made his sister cry.

Making it look as if she were swallowing a hiccup, Sakura carefully inched closer to the boy and took one of the cookies, hesitating briefly before biting into it. She'd just have to remember all the instructions from the dentist so she could avoid any visits. "Th-thank you," she whispered out, wiping at her eyes to get rid of the already drying tears. "S-sorry I cried, um..." She paused, looked at him through her bangs, and waited for him to introduce himself.

Sasuke beamed, though a slight flush still crept across his face, a remnant of his previous panic. "I'm Uchiha Sasuke. It's okay, I used to cry a lot too before my nii-san said it was okay to mess up sometimes. I'm sure you'll get better soon...!" He then paused, and blushed again, realizing he'd forgotten to ask what _her_ name was. "Um, sorry. I forgot to ask your name too..."

_He's so polite and nice and happy and nervous and so ridiculously cute!_ Sakura thought, resisting the urge to squeal and glomp him. He was nothing like his future self. "I'm Haruno Sakura," she managed to mumble out, rubbing her toe in the dirt as she took another bite of the delicious cookie. It was hard staying in character with her thoughts so excited. "Um, nice to meet you..."

The boy nodded, as if he'd just decided something important upon hearing her name. "Nice to meet you, Sakura-chan! I'm gonna help you throw kunai now, okay?"

Sakura blinked from surprise at the unexpected offer. "Um, alright. Thank you..."

"No problem! Now let's start! Put your hand like this..." It was the beginning of a very odd friendship.

* * *

_"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are gray... Oh my sun dear, how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away..."_

When Naruto did his school work, this was the song he hummed, repetitively, under his breath. It was the song he sang as he read the same page of the history book over and over, trying to memorize all the important things for a test. He sung it when he was walking to school. He sung it the very few times that he left school unescorted. If anything was happening that needed either his total concentration or a total lack thereof, this was inevitably the string of sounds coming out of his mouth.

Sakura knew this because after a month of subtly 'noticing' him, quietly questioning and slowly approaching and lingering with him more and more, she'd managed to become his friend.

_And what a hard friend to make,_ Sakura thought to herself as she munched on a Mikoto-specialty cinnamon and chocolate cookie, staring curiously at Naruto as he sang his little song and drew a picture full of shaky, impossibly colored flowers, brilliant butterflies that sometimes lacked antennae, grass that had occasional purple strands strewn about from where he plucked the wrong crayon up from beside him, and a single entity under the one tree and sunglasses-wearing sun; due to it's vibrantly magenta hair, she thought it might be her.

Naruto wasn't the best artist around, but he _was_ very good at misdirection. When she'd first started on her quest to become his friend, he didn't make a peep of sound. He just stared at her with those large blue eyes. His gaze sometimes reminded her of a Hyuuga, wide and almost blind in how unfocused they were, yet very acutely picking up every single detail to take it apart, break it down, and find every nuance connected to it. When he finally started speaking to her, maybe a week or so after she started sitting near him in class, he didn't look at her at all except in the short intervals when she spoke. She'd been torn between being offended and relieved.

Only recently had she realized that the less he looked at someone, the more he trusted them not to do something when they didn't have his full attention.

Even more recently, he'd finally started to talk. He never did answer her question back in the library, when she first ran into him. They'd been intercepted by a cat-masked ANBU member, who had quietly informed them that it was time for Naruto to check out his book and leave. The blonde boy had just looked at her solemnly and then turned to walk away. It _hurt_, really, a lot more than she thought it might have. But she was nothing if not determined.

She wanted his friendship. In the end, that was what her determination had gotten her.

_All we need is Kakashi-sensei,_ Sakura thought. _If I can introduce Sasuke and Naruto... And find Kakashi-sensei... We'll be complete. We'll be Team Seven again. No Orochimaru, no Root members, no avenging, no betrayals, just a clean slate_.

She wanted her team back so badly.

Naruto started back at the beginning with his humming. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey... Oh my sun dear, how much I love you, please don't take my sunshine away," Sakura whispered in time with the sounds. It was worth it for the surprised look she got.

_Team Seven, together again... My sunshine._

She was getting there.

* * *

Yes, the ages are done on purpose. Because this is AU.


	4. H o k a g e

Once again, the ages were done on purpose. And this is still AU.

* * *

Three months had passed since Sakura had come back to the Leaf; three long, strange, nostalgia-fulfilling and creating months. There was an odd dichotomy between her adult memory and her short memory, sometimes showing up in her dreams, and sometimes revealing itself in her day-to-day interactions. Some days, Sakura would wake up before the sun even rose and spend three to four minutes panicking over the lack of weapons on her person, only to see a teddy bear or hear Jinya puttering around sleepily, and realize that she was no longer in a time where weaponless was only a status gained through capture.

More than once, when around her mother, Sakura opened her mouth and had to restrain herself from referring to the woman as 'Tsunade-sama.' Somehow, she didn't think Haruno Nadeshiko would appreciate or even understand it if her six year old daughter confused her for a woman who'd all but abandoned the Leaf before she was even born. It was times like that when Sakura had to hold back tears and fight off a headache; she loved Tsunade like a mother, but the only way the woman would come to the Leaf was dependent on the death of Sarutobi, who _Naruto_ loved like a grandfather.

Something similar, yet radically different, happened when she was around Naruto. This was primarily because Naruto was... Well, Naruto. He was quiet where he'd once been loud, calm where he used to be hyper, and a lot easier to overlook in a crowd than she was used to. The blonde had a strange way of blending in with his surroundings as soon as you stopped paying attention, and a lightness to his steps that was slightly disconcerting for a trained kunoichi to notice in a child. For the most part, Sakura had tacked this down to his still-mysterious relationship with the ANBU in the village. Considering that they were the only adults she'd ever seen him around besides their civilian teacher, it made sense that he would subconsciously copy them.

Of course, walking wasn't the _only_ thing Naruto had gotten from the ANBU, as Sakura found out. No... He'd learned more things from the Leaf's silent protectors than she'd likely ever learn about him, even with her own previous knowledge of him from the future that wasn't particularly valid anymore.

"...said I'm going to the Academy next year, when I turn seven," the pink haired child told her light-haired friend in quiet tones. "It took Jinya a long time to convince them, but he did. He's already teaching me how to throw kunai and some basic stances, so I think I'll do well." She paused, and her emerald eyes locked onto the paper that Naruto was writing, which he hadn't paused from once as she spoke. "What about you? Are you going to follow the civilian track and go to trade school?"

"You know I'm not," Naruto mumbled. He put down his pencil and glanced towards her, before slowly continuing, "I'm pretty good with projectiles. And I don't know the basic Academy stances but I do know a few others. Do you wanna...?" His words trailed off, but it wasn't unexpected. Sakura was surprised he'd even said that much, to be honest. He tended to say whatever was necessary and not much else.

"Sure!" Sakura chirped. A glance at his paper told her that he was finished; he seemed to have a strange amount of talent when it came to writing about historical figures, which had come as a real surprise to her. Every time their teacher assigned a paper, he chose a different person to write about, ranging from the former leaders of other nations to famous bounties that the Leaf had claimed. It made her curious. "Ne, Naruto?"

"Yeah?" He wasn't looking at her anymore. Instead, he was packing his papers into his bright orange backpack (_one of the most familiar things about him_) and eying the group of civilian boys entering the park warily in his peripheral vision.

Sakura looked up at them too, wondering if she knew who they were. "Why do you know so much about all these people that you write about? I mean, you never even look at the books you take out about them..." Sakura remembered one memorable occasion, where Naruto had completed three pages on the history of the Yondaime in less than forty minutes, without once looking up from his paper.

Her attention was drawn to Naruto again as a curious thing happened: a dull red flush slowly crept up Naruto's neck, then his cheeks, and finally began coloring his ears as he stared down at his backpack, opening his mouth to reply only to shut it again, biting his lip.

Raising her eyebrows, she prodded him in the side with a finger, grinning when he released a quiet squeak, reminiscent of the sound Hinata used to make whenever he noticed her. "C'mon, Naruto! Tell me!"

"...You can't laugh," the boy warned.

Sakura furrowed her brows. "Why would I laugh?"

"You just _can't_, okay?"

"Fine, fine... Now tell me!" She scooted closer in anticipation. "I promise I won't laugh!"

Naruto glanced from side to side, as if checking for listening ears; somehow, Sakura doubted he noticed the ever-present ANBU perched in the tree above them, although she could be wrong. Finally, however, Naruto relayed lowly, "I'm gonna be Hokage when I grow up, so I hafta know lotsa important stuff."

Sakura, for the first time in a long while, didn't know how to react. It was impossible to tone down the slight widening of her eyes, or hold back her quiet whisper of, "Really...?"

The whiskered boy bit his lip at her reaction, but deftly nodded. "Really. I mean it. I have to know the important people without a book, and be able to look at everything without giving stuff away, and I have to write really, really neat. Then I have to become one of the best fighters, and master one-thousand different jutsu, and..." He faltered. "It's a lot of stuff, but I'm gonna learn it. I'm..." There was another pause, but he stared her in the eye and continued in a strong voice, "I _will_ be the Hokage someday."

With the sheer determination in his voice, Sakura suddenly couldn't believe she'd ever wondered why _her_ Naruto and _this_ Naruto were so completely different. That promise, and that gaze, and that absolute _surety_ in his voice... The green-eyed girl grinned broadly. "I think you're going to be a great Hokage, Naruto."

If nothing else, his wide-eyed expression at her response was worth it. "Y-you... Do?" he stuttered out, blinking.

"Of course!" Her grin grew even wider. "In fact, I'll even help you. Still, that's a long way, and it's a lot of stuff you gotta learn, right? Let's just go train for right now. We can see who throws the most kunai to the center!"

"...Yeah."

Was it just her, or had he whispered a 'thank you' under his breath as they walked away?

* * *

Sasuke threw the best kunai by the tiniest, _tiniest_ margin, and it was driving both the boys absolutely insane.

The young blonde was introduced to Sasuke by Sakura, who'd invited the dark haired child to join their kunai throwing contest when he showed up to train with them nearly a week ago. It quickly went from a simple contest to something more along the lines of a battle, because for some, insane reason, it seemed that Sasuke and Naruto threw their kunai the _exact same way_.

If it weren't for the blonde's slightly lesser coordination, Sakura was sure that the boys would be evenly matched in beating her out. Since she'd started training under her older brother's supervision, she'd increased to getting four in seven shots directly, and they were almost always close to the center when she did manage to get things right. But both Naruto and Sasuke made almost all of their shots, and half the time they were bull's eye hits, whether their kunai were dull or live.

When they really got into it, she sometimes felt just as she had when Team 7 first formed; she was just some civilian girl with big brains, stuck between two veritable powerhouses for teammates...

"Ow!" Sasuke stumbled and, somehow, scratched himself with his kunai. He stared at the shallow cut on his left arm with a slight quiver of his bottom lip as he fought not to cry from the blood welling up.

"I'll get a bandage," Naruto spoke up after a moment, biting his lip.

"Wait!" Eagerly, Sakura shot forward, startling Sasuke from his watery-eyed pout as she wiped at his cut with the hem of her shirt, then clumsily began forming seals with hands that didn't yet have the dexterity necessary for truly complicated techniques. "I learned this last week..." With a frown of concentration, she placed one hand over the cut, and then watched with glee as the tiny amount of chakra she'd managed to gather up turned green over his hand and, slowly, knitted the skin back together.

She sat down once there was nothing but a thin, fading pink line left on Sasuke's skin where the cut had been. "See? Isn't it cool?" Sakura exclaimed, beaming widely even as she tried not to waver from the sudden drain she felt. Even a simple bunshin took a lot out of her at the moment, but she was sure that she'd improve with practice. "That's the Mystical Palm technique! For healing!" She knew far more medical techniques, each of them ten times as complex as that, but it made her _proud_ that she could do such a thing when she was only six years old for all intents and purposes.

Naruto and Sasuke both stared at the Uchiha scion's arm in awe, then sat down near her on the grass, each taking turns to poke at the healed wound, as if expecting it to pop open once again. "That's really awesome," Naruto said, looking to her. He'd been talking more freely ever since confiding his dream in her a week ago.

"Thanks, Sakura-chan!" Sasuke exclaimed, smiling at her widely. "This is really neat. I wish okaa-san was a medic-nin, then she wouldn't use the stingy stuff on me... Are you learning to be a medic-nin, Sakura-chan?"

She still startled a bit every time the boy added the suffix to her name, which had _never_ happened before, but she was getting _almost_ used to it. Picking at a blade of grass, she smiled at Sasuke and nodded. "Yup. And when I grow up, I'm gonna go with my onii-chan on missions and heal him every time he gets hurt. I think onii-chan is learning some when he teaches me about it, but I guess the more the merrier, right?"

"My nii-san is really cool. I bet he already knows how to do _loads_ of medical techniques, even better than your nii-san," Sasuke boasted. Luckily, Sakura had quickly learned that Sasuke absolutely adored his older brother and thought he was the best thing in the entire world, and so, she didn't take any offense. "Do you have a nii-san, demon..." He paused under Sakura's sudden glare. "...Um, Naruto?"

Suddenly subdued, Naruto shook his head, and joined Sakura in picking at grass. While he was focused on the ground, Sakura gave Sasuke her best impression of an irritated Uchiha Mikoto, which was surprisingly spot-on despite her age. Sasuke flinched, and joined them with picking at grass. He knew why Sakura was angry; he'd called Naruto _demon_ again, which he'd been trying not to. It was just that everyone he knew called Naruto the demon boy, and he'd never really referred to the blonde kid by any other name. He _tried_ to remember to call him Naruto, but he still slipped up and made him sad.

Making Naruto sad was a _big_ no-no when it came to dealing with Sakura. On a good day, she was talkative and cheerful and smiled a lot. On a normal day, she still smiled, but it took coaxing to make her talk without stuttering and stop fiddling with the ends of her pink shirt. But a bad day was radically different; on a bad day, Sakura could go completely blank faced, and, if provoked, explode into a red-faced, glaring, fire-breathing creature of devious malice that sent everyone smart running, far, far away.

Sasuke didn't like it when Sakura had bad days, but it seemed that once again, he'd somehow caused one. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"'s okay," Naruto mumbled back.

"...Sakura-chan?" the Uchiha prodded.

She shook her head. "Don't worry about it."

Strangely enough, as irritated as she'd been only moments ago, she really did mean it. Sakura supposed that it was just so strange to hear Sasuke apologize that she couldn't really stay angry. Still, she wouldn't have been bothered for very long anyways; it was just too nice being together with her team again to ruin with a temper.

Mentally, she sighed. _Just a little bit closer..._

* * *

At some point there will be action in this story.


	5. F a m i l y M a t t e r s

I guess this isn't something easily noticeable, but **I don't actually watch Naruto**. I used to keep up with bits and pieces, and my friends are fanatics so I know things, and facts about the manga and anime sorta diffuse into me when I read fanfiction, but I don't watch the series. Nor do I read the manga. I just _like_ it. Strange, perhaps, but that's how I work. So if things that happened just... Don't happen in this fic, well, that's why. Any other questions?

As for this chapter. Well. It'll make sense once I get around to making it make sense, so keep looking out for updates. I've certainly got an idea that I don't think has been used before.

* * *

Uchiha Mikoto played a variety of roles. She was a loyal jounin of the Leaf, and that meant she was duty-bound to uphold the laws and do her best to keep the Will of Fire burning brightly in every citizen and shinobi of the Leaf that she encountered. She was also a rare female Uchiha with an activated Sharingan, and naturally, she had to keep up reputation as a strong woman in general. Actually, simply by being a woman, there were all sorts of expectations and unwritten rules that she needed to follow if she wanted to remain in good standing.

She was also a _mother_. And at that moment, her motherly instincts were screaming at her to grab her youngest child and pull a quick retreat, and if possible, do so with her dignity intact. Unfortunately, these instincts were creating something called a _role conflict_ within her.

The Kyuubi jinchuuriki was standing on her doorstep with her baby boy and a pink-haired civilian girl. Mikoto was a loyal Leaf jounin, so she would definitely _not_ grab the tiny blonde by his neck and launch him as far away from the compound as she could manage, which was quite far indeed. She ruled out this response.

The jinchuuriki was looking straight into her gaze with his shocking blue eyes. Mikoto was an Uchiha with an activated Sharingan, and it would take .07 seconds for her to implant a mental suggestion that he should go home tonight and drown himself in the bath tub. The Uchiha would praise her for it... Unfortunately, she was a loyal jounin of the Leaf, so that couldn't happen. That was another response gone.

Her little Sasuke had scratches on his arms, just the same as the pink haired civilian child, but the jinchuuriki didn't have a single wound anywhere on his person. Mikoto was a mother, and she automatically assumed that he wasn't hurt because _he_ was the one hurting the other two. Hence, she wanted to grab her baby and maybe the civilian and just lock the thing out in the hopes that it would leave. But she was an Uchiha, so she couldn't sentence the rest of her clan to the child, and a loyal jounin, who knew better than to treat any Leaf child in such a manner, jinchuuriki or not. It was a no go.

A cute little blonde boy had just told her son that he had "a really pretty mom." Mikoto was a woman, a one of the first things she'd learned growing up was to take all compliments with grace. The proper response would be to smile and act like a good hostess. To her chagrin, there was no reason for her not to use this response.

Beyond every other role, Mikoto was a creature of logic by nature. Logically, she would need to go with the flow. So she did.

Her entire thought process had taken roughly 6 seconds.

The official matron of the Uchiha clan let a small, humble smile cross her face as she crouched to be at eye level with the three children, staring first into mint green eyes, then obsidian like hers, and finally azure. "Why thank you," she spoke to Naruto in quiet, lilting tones. The boy turned a bit red and looked at his feet, while Sasuke gained a smug look and the pink-haired girl seemed strangely amused. She got the feeling that she shouldn't have heard the child's previous comment.

Oh well.

"So, Sasuke-chan, who are your friends?" Mikoto addressed, resting her chin in the palm of one of her hands. "Did you ask their guardians for permission before they came here?" Judging by her son's sudden blush, she doubted it.

"Okaa-san, this is Haruno Sakura," he gestured to the little girl, "...and this is Uzumaki Naruto." His eyes, still a bit too large for his face, suddenly took on the familiar pleading look that he got whenever he wanted to substitute his vegetables for tomato chunks at dinner. "We were practicing with our kunai but a genin team made us leave and I remembered that the clan has really, really big training grounds so we went there but then we got hungry and Sakura-chan and Naruto were going to leave but I asked them to stay so they could have lunch because you have the best bentos ever and it's better than their lunch so can they please stay?" he ended before taking a gasping breath of air, face red.

Mikoto noticed that both the civilian (_Sakura, she reminded herself_) and the jinchuuriki (_Uzumaki-kun, Uzumaki-kun, Uzumaki-kun, not demon_) looked amused now. Still, she didn't miss her son's attempt to avoid one of her questions. "Sasuke-chan, did you ask for permission?"

"Um... Sakura-chan's onii-san didn't mind," Sasuke hedged, shifting from one foot to another.

"And what about Uzumaki-kun's guardians, Sasuke-chan?" the woman prodded.

"Um... No. But, but, ANBU-san never leaves Naruto alone, so it doesn't matter, right?" he asked hopefully.

A slight flare of her chakra proved that the boy's words were true, and the aforementioned figure appeared to be loitering on her rooftop. She wondered how Sasuke had even known the ANBU was there, but dismissed the thought in favor of assessing the situation. It was, technically, the same thing as having permission; the children would've been stopped by now if they, or rather _he_, wasn't allowed to be here. Still... "Next time, you will ask for permission first. Is that understood?" She didn't like taking a stern tone with either of her sons; they got enough of that from their father. Sometimes, however, it was necessary.

Just the thought of the clan taking even _more_ suspicion about their possible dealings with the Kyuubi was stressful enough; she had no desire to see that possibility become a reality.

"Okay, okaa-san," the small boy mumbled back, rubbing his toe in the dirt.

For a moment, Mikoto continued to stare her son down, just to press the point, but she finally let a smile cross her face once more. "Alright then. Go on to the kitchen and wash your hands. Everybody can help me make some onigiri." With a smile, Mikoto stood up fully and stepped to the side to allow the cheering children in.

Her eyes lingered on Naruto; if he messed up a single hair on her baby's head, she would attack the child, ANBU watcher or not. Until that time, however, she could sit back and let her son enjoy the first friends his age that he'd ever made.

* * *

Ten-almost-eleven year old Uchiha Itachi had been a Chuunin for seven months and an ANBU member for five. It wasn't the best career for a closet pacifist, but while he fairly disliked mortal combat, he enjoyed the adrenaline rush and the tightly-reigned control he had over his every muscle. Thus, when the Elders of his clan urged him to the accept the position in ANBU, he did.

Although Itachi hadn't gone into the organization with any particular expectations, there had still been some sense that he would be sent on life-threatening missions where his skills would actively be challenged and he would be forced to improve due to the sheer desire to remain alive; 'bad-ass' missions, in short.

No matter how much of a genius he was or how much he enjoyed peace, Itachi was still ten years old, and no logic his mind presented could keep him from being disappointed when his first long-term assignment was essentially baby sitting. Honestly, he couldn't even understand why an ANBU member was being used for the mission rather than a special jounin or someone, _anyone_ other than the 'elite of the elite' in the Leaf.

Two hours shadowing Uzumaki Naruto changed that, because in a strange coincidence, Itachi was assigned to guard the boy on the same day that the ninth assassination attempt on the child occurred. It wasn't a clumsy, drunken villager either; it was a fully trained, high jounin level shinobi who somehow made it past the various patrols in the Leaf to try and take the boy out while he was walking from school. It wasn't a hard battle, but it certainly couldn't be classified as 'easy' either, especially when the entire thing had to occur without the child in question realizing that anything was going on.

Of course, even ignoring that, the child was a trouble magnet on his own. He baited rabid animals by accident, wandered into training fields chock-full of abandoned traps, pissed off the occasional shinobi with his very existence, somehow managed to repeatedly get his hands on standard issue weapons instead of academy training ones, and ate expired and occasionally spoiled food without noticing anything wrong. Naruto was pretty nice for a kid, but the sheer amount of danger he got into, even with 'one-in-a-million' odds, was simply ridiculous.

Itachi didn't even attempt to consider how much trouble the boy would get into if he lived somewhere other than the ANBU dormitories. Instead, he just felt thankful that his younger brother wasn't _nearly_ so difficult to care for when he was around. In fact, he was planning to silently celebrate the fact by spending some time with his brother next month, when his official 'break' came. ANBU stints were broken up into three month sets with two week breaks in-between, so he would have the time to give his younger brother some more attention when it came up.

For the time being, however, he was Crow, watching over his charge, and not for the first time, he found his senses screaming out that something was amiss.

Amazingly enough, it wasn't the blonde that he found suspicious, as was usually the case when the boy got this particular feeling, which didn't scream 'danger' so much as 'there's a headache coming.' It also had nothing to do with his baby brother, who had gone against every rule a 'proper' Uchiha might follow by making friends with civilians and then bringing them into the compound, or even his mother, who was being frighteningly nice and fair to the child she'd raised him to call 'demon.'

Strangely, it was the pink haired civilian girl who kept drawing his attention. She'd first come under his radar nearly three months ago, when she began hanging around Naruto for no particular reason that he or any of the other watchers on 'Uzumaki Duty' could tell. Considering the boy's tendency to sit at the back and try to fade into the background, it was baffling, although not so much when she was revealed to be just as shy and quiet.

She'd faded from notice until the first time the two talked about becoming ninja. She was the six year old child of a Civilian Council diplomat and his wife, the daughter of a fisherman in Wave Country. With no shinobi history, excluding her older brother who was a first generation shinobi, there was no real reason for her to be so interested in being a shinobi; not a _kunoichi_, as most young girls dreamed after reading "The Tale of the Lady Ninja," but a _shinobi_. A _fighter_ rather than some princess who happened to have training in ninjutsu and genjutsu.

Itachi wouldn't have picked up on that if it weren't for the rather heated rant the girl went into about 'flower arranging' versus 'basic poisons' as classes. Combined with her unnaturally high aptitude with throwing weapons and then basic medical techniques, it was _suspicious_. Later on, however, he encountered his old classmate Jinya, who was also surprisingly skilled and dedicated for a first generation shinobi. The older boy apparently helped his sister train and readily provided her with books about medical jutsu and basic medicine, so once again, Itachi let his curiosity fade.

That lasted just long enough for him to catch the girl explaining the Leaf exercise to his charge and his younger brother, before proceeding to demonstrate a level of chakra control that simply should not be possible for a six year old civilian girl, no matter how smart or skilled she was. Even he hadn't had chakra control that fine at that age, and he was considered a prodigy.

Yet none of his investigation gave any explanation for her oddities, and nothing about her lent credence to her being a spy... (_"Stupid ramune!" Sakura exclaimed, attempting to push the marble into her soda bottle and failing miserably. Nearby, Sasuke and Naruto watched as an amused Mikoto attempted to take the bottle and open the ramune instead. But Sakura was stubborn._) ...And, watching the children, Crow could say that she _certainly_ wasn't an assassin.

If nothing else, her friendship kept Sasuke occupied with something other than trying to copy his older sibling in every possible way.

Still, Crow vowed to himself that when next month came, he would definitely use his break to find out what was really going on with the girl. Until then, he would collect information. Jinya was nice enough, and seemed eager to praise his younger sister, in any case. He would make an effort to speak to the boy a bit more.

* * *

"Sakura-chan, are you absolutely _positive_ that you are going to be a shinobi?" Nadeshiko asked, crouching next to her daughter's bed to look her in the eye. "If you decide to do this now, your father and I will support you the entire way, but it will be a permanent choice. You _must_ be absolutely, positively sure about choosing this path in your life, my daughter."

The pink haired girl stared into her mother's almost identical gaze, wide eyed and somewhat anxious. Her mother had come into her room to tuck her in that night, but before she lay down, the woman spouted that question out of nowhere. Nadeshiko was normally a gentle looking woman, with her soft, round face and red curls, but tonight, her jaw was set and her mouth sat in a thin line to indicate exactly how serious she was.

Confused, Sakura tried to figure out where the question had come from; in her original childhood, her parents had never supported her decision to become a shinobi, and it took all sorts of effort to convince them just to remove her from civilian school and place her in the Academy full-time.

_**But you didn't decide you were definitely going to be a kunoichi until after Jinya... Keh.**_ Her Inner Self's voice faded, but the words made sense. While she had started the Academy when she was seven before, she'd never actually been serious about becoming a ninja, not until after Jinya died when she was nine. And even then her attempt was half-hearted from a combination of grief, noticing Sasuke, and a variety of other distractions. But now...

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan, but I can't let you continue on this track unless you're absolutely sure. You must decide now," Nadeshiko prodded gently, cupping one of her daughter's small hands in hers. The worry was clear in her eyes, but there was also an _acceptance_ which Sakura had never seen before.

"I..." The girl faltered, but then straightened her back and nodded sharply, staring directly into her mother's eyes. "I _am_ going to be a shinobi, okaa-san. A strong one."

Nadeshiko smiled, although it had a sad quality to it. "I'm glad that you're so sure, Sakura-chan. And now that you've decided... Do you remember how we usually stay the summer with Ruriko-obaa-san every three years?"

Sakura did. Her grandmother lived in Wave Country with the largest branch of their family, which had been scattered between Fire Country and Water Country since the Third Great Shinobi War, and they'd visited every three years up until Jinya's death. Her grandmother had died the year after, along with the rest of that branch of the family, excluding a few that left to Water, who they never saw or heard from again. Strangely enough, Sakura still didn't know what had actually happened there.

But what did that have to do with her deciding to be a shinobi?

Oblivious to her daughter's rapid thought processes, Nadeshiko stood, then sat on the bed and pulled Sakura onto her lap, cradling the child to her chest. "Do you also remember that we visited Ruriko-obaa-san more than once two years ago, when Jinya first made it to genin?" She felt the girl nod, and continued, "Well, now that you have decided to be a serious shinobi, we are going to have another trip to visit Ruriko-obaa-san."

Sakura blinked, still not understanding. "How come, okaa-san?" she asked, tilting her head up to look at her mother's face.

Nadeshiko smiled, brushing some of the long bangs from Sakura's face with gentle fingers. "Before I married your papa, my name was not Haruno; it was Karibi. I have four sisters; I don't think you remember them, you haven't seen your aunties since you were two. That's because all my sisters decided when they were very young, just like you, that they would be shinobi." She giggled at her daughter's suddenly wide eyes. "Yes, okaa-san decided to be the boring sister who became a housewife and learned how to fish with your grandfather instead of fighting."

The whole talk was turning into a strange dream for Sakura. Her mother, who could barely lift three grocery bags without tilting over, came from a shinobi family? The... Karibi family? She'd never heard of it. Karibi. _Borrowed Fire_. How strange...

_**Shannaro! No wonder we kicked so much ass!**_ Inner Sakura cheered from her head. _Hush, you, she's still talking!_

"When I married your papa, we decided to settle in the Leaf and raise our family, instead of staying in Wave with the rest of our family. We had decided to remain a civilian family. Of course, I never could have predicted that both our babies would want to become shinobi. But I suppose it's in the blood..."

Sakura's thought process slowed to a halt. In the blood? She couldn't possibly mean...?

"...Part of the reason so many of us stay in Wave Country is because all of us have the potential to use some very special abilities, limited to only the people in our family. Those of us who move to Water are those who, because they are unable to use it or they are strong enough to rely on other skills, do not fear that they will be hunted down. Many of us remain in Wave Country to both train and to be comfortably near the water, where we have always been. And the very few of us, like me, who decided to come to Fire Country usually decide to be merchants or farmers, but always civilians. You see?"

Feeling dazed, Sakura nodded, blinking rapidly at her mother all the while. "So... We are... _Special_...?" She felt a bit dizzy just contemplating the idea. It made no sense at all. How could she possibly have a kekkei genkai? She was just weak, normal Sakura, the only first-generation shinobi in the rookie nine, the _normal_ one. She couldn't have a bloodline limit! "I... What kind? Does onii-chan use it? How come you didn't tell me before, okaa-san? And was Ruriko-obaa-san a shinobi too? What about grandpa? Do we _really_ have something special? Are you sure? Did you ever use it? What about..."

Laughing, Nadeshiko hushed her daughter with a finger, amused by the sudden flurry of questions. "Yes, Sakura-chan, I am very sure that we are special. What we have is called a _kekkei genkai_. Your onii-chan has a form of it, but he doesn't use it much because he isn't fully trained. Now, save your questions, it is long past your bed time." She hushed Sakura again when the girl started opening her mouth. "It is time for you to go to sleep, Sakura-chan. We'll be visiting Ruriko-obaa-san soon enough, and you can ask all your questions then, alright?"

Sakura pouted even as her head seemed to spin with all the thoughts and confusion, but she nodded and complied as Nadeshiko stood and tucked her into her blue and yellow comforter. "Good night, okaa-san."

"Good night, Sakura-chan." Nadeshiko kissed her on the cheek and exited, turning off the light as she did. As she closed the door with a soft 'click' noise, the woman wondered if she was doing the right thing. If maybe, she should keep her daughter sheltered and encourage her to be a civilian and stay _safe_... "As if that worked with Jinya," the woman whispered to herself, shaking her head but smiling. Her children were headstrong.

Inside her room, Sakura stared up at the stars glowing on her ceiling and clutched at the stuffed green bear in her arms. Amidst all her thoughts and the overwhelming disbelief crowding her mind, one thought continued to echo:

_What the hell is going on?_

* * *

Chill, bro. I know what I'm doing... Mostly. Once again, **this is AU.**


	6. C a r i n g

Shout out to the reviewer called **Emi**, who didn't leave a way for me to reply. Awesome and super-helpful random facts.

Also, **this is AU. **THIS IS AU. _THIS IS AU._ **It's still AU.** Just a reminder.

* * *

Haruno Jinya was the kind of person who, by virtue of genetics, was made to stand out in a crowd. Like most people born in Fire Country, his skin was slightly bronzed from spending most of his life in direct sunlight. His skin color, however, was in contrast to his hair, which was not gray, or silver, or pale blonde, but pure _white_, several shades lighter than anyone could achieve artificially, no matter how much bleach was used. It was also distinctly 'fluffy,' like the downy feathers of a newly hatched chick. His eyes were an extremely light shade of green, lighter than the color of mint leaves, and gave him a distinctly cat-like appearance. To avoid looking like a walking disaster with his natural coloring, Jin dressed almost solely in white, tan, red, and green colors.

With all this in mind, however, possibly the most unique thing about Jin was not his appearance, but rather his ability to completely disappear in a crowd, or a grocery store, or a classroom. Or a mostly empty library.

Luckily, after two weeks, Itachi had mastered the art of standing still and moving his eye from position to position as slowly as possible. Usually, on the second or third look over, he would suddenly notice Jinya sitting at a table reading or standing next to a shelf, or, on one memorable occasion, standing a few feet away from him and trying to figure out what the hell Itachi was looking for in the library.

"Haruno-san," Itachi greeted.

Blinking, Jinya craned his neck upwards to see who was speaking to him. "Ah. Good afternoon, Uchiha-san." The boy stood up from his crouched position, clutching two books under his arm. Itachi was already taller than everyone else in their age group, and even standing up, Jin was shorter than him. "You seem to be in the library rather often lately." _And everywhere else, _he commented to himself. _I refuse to believe that the Uchiha heir is stalking me, _he chanted over and over in his mind. He _refused_.

"I've found that some books here can appease my brother when I am too tired to train with him," Itachi replied, folding his hands behind his back. "I actually got the idea when you told me about taking out books for your sister." In his mind, Itachi smirked. As always, the mere mention of his younger sister put a spark into the boy's eye. The boy really was a proud older brother.

Jin's entire posture relaxed a bit, and he allowed a small smile to over take his lips. This was the fifth time that Uchiha Itachi had approached him and started a conversation that somehow managed to end up on the topic of his sister. Unfortunately, he couldn't allow this little investigation to continue, not unless the Uchiha decided to give him some concrete reasoning behind his questions.

"Ne, Uchiha-san, I was going to check out these books and have a bit of lunch before heading over to train with my team. If you'd like, we could carry on this conversation there. I was thinking of going to the dango place near the west gate. My treat!" And then, because no good manipulation attempt went without it, Jinya smiled. Smiling always made people feel better.

Oblivious to the actual motivations behind the other boy's deceptively gentle smile, Itachi agreed. Even without the added incentive of free sweets, he recognized that this was his chance to finally get some _real_ information. In any case, Jin wasn't bad company, even if he did seem like one of those soft-hearted people who cuddled puppies and saved helpless kittens from trees.

It wasn't until much later, when he was in the middle of his meal, that Itachi realized exactly how he'd been played.

The question came out of nowhere. "You're very curious about my baby sister, aren't you, Uchiha-san?" Although his face was still gentle, a natural expression he'd inherited from his mother, Jin felt a swell of sadistic amusement when the Uchiha's hand faltered as he was lifting a dango skewer from his plate. _Gotcha_.

Itachi hadn't been suspicious when Jin chose a booth in the back; he'd figured that the boy noticed the trio of fangirls trailing behind them and decided he didn't want to be bothered. Likewise, he didn't say anything when Jin took the side of the booth that had its back to the door, because he liked being able to see all exits in a room. It was only now, as the boy smiled at him like nothing was wrong, that he realized that he'd been effectively cornered.

_Fuck,_ he summarized mentally.

Keeping his face as blank as always, Itachi set down the dango skewer and straightened his back, fighting the temptation to hypnotize the boy with his Sharingan and leave while he still had the chance. Honestly, if he was going to get in trouble for his curiosity, the boy wouldn't have chosen a dango restaurant for them to talk. Still, he didn't actually know how to respond... "Hn." It was an all purpose answer.

Sitting back, Jin folded his hands on the table and stared directly into Itachi's eyes. "I don't think this is the case, but I will get it off of my shoulders first." All of a sudden, his face went completely blank, his smile disappeared, and his eyes looked like green chips of ice. "You do not have some type of less than savory interest in my baby sister, do you?" It was a question, but it came out more like a statement. Any answer other than a firm 'No' was obviously _not applicable_.

"_No_," Itachi hurried to stress. He felt more than a little disturbed when the boy suddenly swung back to his normal 'I'm-nice-and-sweet-and-wouldn't-hurt-a-fly' expression as if he'd never looked so cold at all.

"That's exactly what I thought," Jinya replied, smiling once more. "Now, as one over protective older brother to another, let's talk. What about Sakura-chan's time with Sasuke could possibly set you off enough that you would investigate her like this?" He allowed his curiosity to show in his voice. Perhaps he wasn't the only one who'd noticed his sister acting a little bit strange recently.

With all their misgivings out of the way, they talked, and began piecing together an interesting, though incomplete, picture. At the end of an hour, when Jinya had to meet his team for training, and Itachi could no longer ignore how little time he had left to get into uniform and switch out with Neko watching the civilian school, both boys felt as if they'd somehow made a new ally.

* * *

He was almost home free. He could make it, he knew it, he just needed to take a few... More... Steps...!

"Where are you going? I thought we were gonna visit Sasuke-kun at his house after school."

With a yelp, Naruto found himself face down on the ground after tripping while he attempted to sneak out of the classroom without Sakura noticing. First, he rolled over onto his back, resisting the urge to pout at Sakura's giggling. "Hmph." Then he stood and, with as much dignity as he could, turned tail and ran without any prior warning.

Roughly thirty seconds later, he found himself on the floor again, this time with Sakura sprawled over his back and the rest of their classmates laughing at them as they circled around the two on the floor. "Ow..." he groaned, not attempting to lift his face from the dirty floor. Then he yelped. "Ow!"

With a sheepish expression, Sakura patted at the spot on his back where she accidentally knee'd him when trying to get up. "Why were you running away, Naruto?" For once, Sakura was genuinely curious. She'd never actually seen this Naruto panic before, especially when she couldn't find any reason. It was strangely comforting to see him acting so irrational again.

This time, Naruto really did pout as he stood up. "I wasn't running away," he protested in a mumble. He really _was_ running away, of course, but he wasn't going to _tell _her that. Running away was for _sissies_.

Rolling her eyes, Sakura planted her hands on her hips and _looked_ at him. After about half a minute, he gave a satisfying squirm under her gaze and tore his eyes away, focusing instead on the emptying hallways to the left of him. Seeing that he wasn't going to give in, Sakura resorted to whining. "Naruto! Tell me what's wrong! Please? Pretty please? _Please?_"

Puffing up his cheeks, Naruto clapped his hands over his ears and began walking away. "I can't hear you!"

Now highly curious and amused to boot, Sakura followed him like a lost puppy, repeating her series of 'Please pretty please' and 'Naruto, tell me!' every step of the way. By the time they reached the gates of the school, where groups of parents, teachers, and older siblings were mingling, the boy had resorted to humming at the loudest volume that he could in an attempt to drown her out.

He was clearly close to his breaking point.

Jinya was one of many watching the two approach. His smile was more of a smirk as he tried to hold in his amusement. It was only in the last few months that he'd realized that his sister actually had a bratty side, and that was mostly because she'd made friends with the blonde child, who was surprisingly quiet under normal circumstances. He thought that Sakura liked having someone around who was just like her, although it probably helped that he didn't tease her. The two seemed to egg each other on, subconsciously, to open up.

"Afternoon, princess," he greeted, scooping the girl up into his arms when she was close enough. Jin settled her on his back and received a kiss on the cheek, then turned his attention to Naruto, who suddenly seemed very small and uncomfortable under the many eyes focused on him. "Hello, Uzumaki-kun."

The boy jumped slightly at the acknowledgement, but shyly waved back. Unbeknownst to them, the blonde's heart was thudding rapidly in his small chest as he tried not to shake from nervousness. Mentally, he was waiting for the smiling older boy to lash out at him, to tell him to leave Sakura alone, or _something_, because that was what always happened when he managed to make a friend. Most people older than him just... Didn't like him. Truthfully, it was the reason he'd tried to get away before Sakura could notice. He didn't really want to meet her brother and end up all alone again.

Strangely enough, though, Sakura's big brother didn't follow his expectations.

"Are you ready to go visit Uchiha-kun?" The white-haired boy addressed the question to both of them, smiling.

Naruto only nodded, shifting in an uncomfortable way and wishing that Crow or Neko or even Bear, who didn't actually like him, was next to him. But wherever his usual watcher was, they were staying hidden like usual. He wished that he hadn't agreed to Sakura's request yesterday and told Inu that he would go with her.

In a manner directly opposite to the blonde, Sakura smiled brightly and hugged her brother around the neck. "Yup! Mikoto-san is really, really nice for letting us come visit. And she makes cookies every time we go over. You should ask her for some, onii-chan."

"Maybe, maybe." Once again, Jinya looked to Naruto. "Ready to go, midget?" He held out his free hand for the five year old to take.

It was a testament to his complete and utter shock at the action that Naruto didn't protest at being called a midget. Hesitantly, the whiskered blonde reached his own hand out, expecting Sakura's older brother to draw away at the very last moment and laugh at him. Except, he didn't, and it seemed that he honestly _wouldn't_, Naruto realized, feeling disbelief as the larger boy's hand wrapped around his securely. He didn't even squeeze his hand too tightly.

Sakura kept up a steady chatter, telling her older brother all about what they'd done in class that day as they began the walk to the Uchiha district. Mentally, though, she was torn between anger and sadness. Although she pretended not to notice anything wrong, it was hard to miss the way Naruto's gaze kept drifting back to where Jinya held his hand, as if he wasn't sure it was really happening. Had her Naruto really been so _deprived_ when he was younger?

She hated the sudden thought that it was probably worse than what she thought.

_**We'll hunt down every single one of those bastards who scared him and BEAT THEM DOWN! CHA! **_Inner Sakura suddenly screamed out, manifesting in Sakura's vision as some strange protective spirit over Naruto, who looked so _tiny_ next to her transparent image.

_We're too small for that right now, though,_ Sakura protested mentally. On the outside, however, she was smiling as Jinya managed to get Naruto talk about what he'd done during the day, giving both boys a reprieve from her chatter. As she was watching, though, she realized that Naruto was still uneasy for some reason, even though Jinya obviously had no intention of doing anything mean to him. _What could possibly be making him feel so nervous?_

"Oi! Jin!"

The trio stopped their trek, and Sakura found herself being set on the ground as Jinya turned to speak to a black haired girl. She thought her name was Tatsuki; if she remembered correctly, she was one of Jinya's teammates in Genin Cell 13. In fact... She was the only one who'd survived the mission that Jinya was killed on.

Feeling her entire body going cold from just the thought of it, Sakura turned to Naruto and found the boy staring at Jin's back with his usual 'thoughtful' expression, which meant that he was squinting his eyes without noticing it and chewing on his thumb. It was adorable, in a really silly looking way. "Naruto?"

The blue-eyed boy blinked back to a normal expression as he looked at her, his eyes prompting her to ask her question.

"What's wrong?" Sakura asked. A pout unwillingly formed on her face when he tensed up and shifted from one foot to another; he didn't want to answer. _Again_. "Why won't you tell me? I'm your friend, Naruto! I want to help you..."

In the background, Jinya was giving his teammate a blank look as she ranted at him, quite loudly, about not letting his "beautiful female teammate" know that he was friends with "_the_ Uchiha Itachi."

Ignoring what was going on behind his back, Naruto stared at Sakura with his own pout, angry at himself for feeling guilty. He didn't want to tell anyone about it. But... _Sakura-chan really _is_ my friend_, the boy thought to himself, fiddling with the orange hem of his blue shirt. He hadn't really of thought of that before. It seemed, to him, that the pink-haired girl had just noticed him one day and started sitting with him, and trying to talk to him, and drawing pictures with him... She'd never actually said that they were _friends_, and he'd never really thought about it; he just got used to her presence.

But she _was_ his friend... _And I guess she does want to help..._ Was that what friends did? Play with each other and talk to each other and bug one another until they talked about what was bothering them? Naruto supposed so. He'd never really had a friend before... _Sakura-chan is smart, and she probably knows all about what friends are supposed to do, so I guess I have to let her help me..._ That didn't mean he wanted to do it though.

With a loud sigh, Naruto crossed his arms over his chest defensively, startling Sakura, who'd given up on getting him to answer in favor of watching Jinya deal with Tatsuki, who was apparently an Itachi fangirl. Gathering all his courage, the boy took a deep breath, and just said it: "Mikoto-san hates me."

_What?_ Maybe she'd just heard him wrong or something, because that was definitely not what she'd been expecting. So she repeated her question aloud, a quizzical expression on her face. "What?"

The shorter boy was giving her look that asked 'do you have hearing problems?' Slowly, like he was talking to a toddler, Naruto repeated himself: "Mikoto-san hates me."

Apparently, Sakura had heard correctly. Unfortunately, that didn't make the words any clearer for her, because she didn't understand what he was talking about at all. She opened her mouth, ready to argue that Sasuke's mother definitely _didn't_ hate him, but some part of her brain told her that it was a bad idea. If she said that, Naruto would think that she didn't believe him, and then he'd just never tell her anything.

Instead, she asked, "Why do you think that, Naruto?" Idly, she reached out and grabbed his hand as Jinya started herding them towards the Uchiha district once more, still pretending to pay attention to Tatsuki's rant, which was running on eight minutes long by that point.

If Naruto was startled by her holding his hand, he didn't show it. The whiskered blonde had returned to his 'thinking' face as he began rattling off his reasoning. "She stares at me," he started off, and continued before she could protest that it wasn't a good reason, "Once you and Sasuke are ahead, if I'm the last one walking, she gives me this _look_. And even when I try not to look at her because she's scary, I can still tell she's looking at me from my back, because I get shivers, like when Bear is watching me on Fridays."

Any protests that Sakura had died down, because Naruto wasn't the only one who got shivers when Bear was on 'Uzumaki Duty' on Fridays. At the same time, however, she'd never noticed Mikoto-san glaring, even though she noticed it when Bear did. It was a vaguely disturbing thought. Still... "You can't say Mikoto-san hates you just 'cause she _stares_ at you. What else?" Sakura prodded.

"She... She doesn't..." Naruto fumbled for words, trying to put his thoughts in a way that someone else would understand. "When Mikoto-san gives us cookies or we help her make onigiri-" He paused as Tatsuki's voice drowned him out (_"Not friends? Not friends?! IF YOU WEREN'T FRIENDS YOU WOULDN'T BE EATING DANGO TOGETHER FOR LUNCH, JIN!"_), then continued, "She holds Sasuke's hands to help him make the rice into balls, and she holds you up to help you wash your hands after lunch, but..." He faltered. How did he explain that the Uchiha matriarch practically flinched away from touching him at all?

But he didn't need to. Sakura's eyes turned to the ground passing under their feet, and she squeezed his hand, trying to think of a single time when she could remember Mikoto-san even brushing against Naruto. But she couldn't. In fact, she could remember times when Mikoto-san's ever-present smile actually faltered when it came to dealing with him.

Still, she didn't want to believe that the woman who'd been so nice to her and seemed to treat him so fairly actually _hated_ him. Logically, she knew that he was probably correct, and yet... "Maybe she just..."

"No!" Naruto suddenly yelled out, pulling his hand away from hers so that he could cross his arms over his chest. He planted both feet firmly on the ground and repeated, loudly, "Mikoto-san _hates_ me, and there's nothing you can say to change that!"

But he'd chosen exactly the wrong time to voice his protest for the third time, because at the exact moment that he did so, they stepped into the gates of the Uchiha Clan Compound, where Sasuke was waiting for them impatiently. Conveniently, Naruto's statement also coincided with the halting of Tatsuki's rant as she realized exactly _where_ she'd followed her teammate to, allowing his voice to ring out loud and clear, with no chance of being misheard.

Sakura had never seen such a completely aghast on Sasuke's face before, in _either_ of her lives. _Uh-oh..._

"Take that back!" Sasuke exclaimed. "Okaa-san doesn't hate anybody! She's not mean!"

Riled up as he was, Naruto didn't even consider backing down. "No! She hates me and everyone's too stupid to see it!"

"I'm not stupid and okaa-san is _not_ mean! Take it back!"

"No, you stupid-head!"

"Okaa-san isn't mean and she doesn't hate anybody because she's nice and _you're_ the stupid-head! I'll prove it!" With that, Sasuke reached out and yanked one of Naruto's hands into his own, then practically ran off towards the main house with him.

Dismayed, Sakura chased after them, leaving her bemused brother with his confused teammate at the gates to the Uchiha district. "Wait!"

In the middle of preparing three small bento, Mikoto found herself startled as her front door was unceremoniously opened and her son ran in yelling, "Okaa-san! Okaa-san!"

As soon as she caught sight of him, and subsequently the blonde child clawing at his hand frantically, her first response was to _attack_. Luckily, her mind intervened, and she noticed that it wasn't Sasuke who seemed afraid, but rather Naruto, who she'd gotten used to seeing in the past three weeks, even if she wasn't particularly thrilled with his presence. Her son seemed to have a death grip on the boy's hand, which he was trying desperately to free himself from. Behind both the boys, Sakura came up huffing and puffing, looking completely dismayed.

Without any visible need for her to attack, Mikoto was confused. "Sasuke-kun? Uzumaki-kun? What's wrong?" All at once, both boys began speaking, trying to drown the other out. The woman caught snatches of 'mean' and 'stupid-head' and 'not, not, _not_, definitely not,' but couldn't actually make out anything being said.

Finally, however, Sasuke stepped on Naruto's foot, causing the boy to yelp and giving him the chance to explain. "Naruto says you hate him and I told him that you don't because you're nice and you don't hate anybody 'cept the bad guys but he called me a stupid-head and said you did and I said you didn't but he doesn't believe me so tell Naruto you don't hate him because you don't because you're nice and you don't hate people that aren't the bad guys!" The boy gasped out in a single breath. Immediately after doing so, he pushed the other boy in front of her, looking at her expectantly with large, pleading obsidian eyes.

(In the background, Sakura came to the highly belated realization that Sasuke was a adorable, naive, _spoiled_ little boy who would probably never accept things that didn't go his way.)

Despite her own personal feelings, which ran closer to the blonde's feelings than her own child's, Mikoto attempted to reassure the boys. "Of course I don't..." As she spoke, she raised her hand, as if to pat the boy on his head or ruffle his hair.

All Naruto saw, however, was somebody who didn't like him reaching in his direction. Already panicked, the boy clenched his eyes shut and raised his hands to cover his head, instinctively trying to protect himself.

Mikoto faltered in her words, her hand still half-raised as she stared at the boy, who was shivering where he stood. She didn't think she'd ever felt so horrified in her life as she did then, standing there with a five year old boy cowering from her hand. He thought she was going to _hit_ him. Jinchuuriki or not, Mikoto was a _mother_, and she would never, ever attempt to strike a child, and especially not in front of her own son.

And yet he thought she would. _Why would he think that?_ Mikoto thought, unaware of the aghast look that had taken over her face as she looked down at the boy. Why would Naruto think that she would hit him?

She had an epiphany: _what proof did he have that she _wouldn't_ hit him?_

Although she'd tried very hard to be impartial to the child whenever he was around, Mikoto was no fool, and she knew exactly how differently she treated him from Sasuke or even Sakura. She'd figured that as long as she wasn't _hostile_, there was nothing wrong with her treatment of the Leaf's less than welcome jinchuuriki. At this very moment, however, she wasn't looking at a jinchuuriki. She was looking at a five year old boy.

A five year old boy who thought that she would _hit_ him.

Feeling like a monster, Mikoto lowered herself to her knees, reached out, and gently pulled the boy's arms away from his head. Then, without further ado, she hugged him in the same way that she might hug Sasuke or Itachi, and stated quite clearly, "I definitely don't hate you, Uzumaki-kun. See?"

When she finally pulled away, Naruto was wide eyed, and had the countenance of a frightened, wet kitten. He was rubbing at his eyes a little shakily, trying to hide his tears and his shock. She'd _hugged_ him. This normally mean adult had actually _hugged_ him.

Sakura and Sasuke both felt a bit uncomfortable standing there and looking at the two. However, where the pink-haired girl had absolutely no way to break the strange, heavy atmosphere and couldn't think of one no matter how hard she tried, Sasuke had his normal, overwhelming desire to prove that he was _right_ to fall back on.

"See? I told you okaa-san didn't hate you! She's not mean, she's nice!"

Naruto had no choice but to concede defeat. "O-okay," he sniffled out. Of course, his emotional state didn't stop him from muttering 'stupid-head' under his breath along the words.

"I'm not a stupid-head!"

As Mikoto broke up the argument and began herding them towards the kitchen to wash their hands and eat, Sakura tried to keep the profound sense of relief and happiness welling up inside her from showing on her face. It seemed that from that moment onward, Sasuke's mother was one more person that Naruto could count on. And more importantly...

_Those two are still my idiots._


	7. S e c r e t K e e p e r s

Um... Hm. Sakura and kekkei genkai. Just... Chill. I got this.

But feel free to guess what it is. **THIS IS AU.** Anything can happen.

* * *

"Itachi! You're home!"

After three days in the plains surrounding Hidden Grass for reconnaissance, Itachi was tired, sore, and covered in no small amount of mud and grass. His hair was greasy and limp and he felt sticky from the layers of perspiration he'd collected throughout the mission. More so, there was still a leftover ringing in his ears from the headset his team had been using to communicate, and Sasuke's high pitched voice didn't particularly help it.

Still, the sight of his little brother hurtling down the hall for a hug couldn't help but put a smile on his face. Itachi crouched and caught the boy in his arms, receiving a tight hug around his neck in return. "Indeed. It's nice to be back."

Sasuke gave him a bright grin, reserved for his big brother only, and then a kiss on the cheek. Immediately afterward, however, he scrunched up his nose and pulled back. "Ew. You stink." He gave his brother a very solemn look. "I think you need to take a bath."

Holding in a snort, Itachi set his brother back down. "I agree, Sasuke. Why don't you go tell okaa-san that I'm home for dinner tonight?" As the boy scurried off, Itachi continued to his room, idly entertaining the thought that his brother had some sort of Itachi-sensor in his body. How else had the boy managed to greet him, unfailingly, every single time he made his way home since the boy had learned to walk?

After quickly showering and changing into his casual clothing, leaving his hair loose behind his neck, Itachi padded his way towards the kitchen, from which he could smell his mother preparing dinner for the family. As he was passing the sitting room, however, a hard voice stopped him in his tracks: "Itachi."

Closing his eyes, Itachi sent a brief prayer for patience up to Amaterasu, then closed off his expression and entered the sitting room. He knelt in front of the low table where his father was browsing several documents, and waited for the man to acknowledge him. At the forty second mark, he made another silent prayer to his patron god, this time asking for his father to get over himself.

He didn't expect that prayer to ever be answered, but in something of a compromise, Fugaku finally set down his scroll and looked down his nose at his oldest son, despite the fact that the boy was quickly approaching his height. "How was your mission, Itachi?"

"All objectives were completed within the specified time frame, Father. There were no complications," the stoic ten year old answered as respectfully as he could. Underneath the table, however, his fists were clenching. 'What happens in ANBU stays in ANBU,' the first rule he'd learned upon joining went. His father had no right to ask about a classified mission.

_But that's why I tell him nothing of use._ His hands relaxed. Itachi really had no reason to stress himself out when he _should_ be relaxing.

"Very good," Fugaku rumbled out lowly. "Has anything of interest occurred in the past week?"

"No, sir." _Not that you haven't asked me that every day that I've been home_. _The answer was always going to be no._ He restrained himself from rolling his eyes.

"Hm." The brown haired man eyed his son, taking in the ramrod straight posture, his perfectly blank face, and his eyes that never strayed from the wall to the left of his head. If he didn't know that his son was _always_ this way, Fugaku would've thought the boy was irritated, or at least uncomfortable. "I presume you'll be continuing your guard duty tomorrow." He sneered out the words. _Even our prodigy is restrained to guarding some fool politician. The Uchiha cannot remain this powerless!_

Itachi didn't react to his father's tone; if the man knew _who _his team was guarding, he wouldn't be so dismissive. "Yes, sir."

"I see..." Fugaku straightened himself, then leaned forward, staring his son directly in the eye. "Good. Remember, Itachi, your are the pride of the Uchiha clan. All of your actions reflect upon us, the missions you take, the people you converse with; even the restaurants you frequent. You must uphold the honor of the clan in everything you do. Always strive to better yourself..."

_Why the fuck is he telling me this again?_ Itachi thought in frustration as his father continued on his rant, which he'd been hearing since he was eight years old, and as such, could repeat in his sleep. Nothing grated on his nerves so much as these 'pep talks' that Fugaku liked to give. Perhaps they made the man feel important...

It took all of his considerable amount of self control to walk out of the room instead of leaving at a dead run, but somehow, the boy managed it. As he continued on his original path, he passed another room, and paused voluntarily this time to peek in on his younger brother. The boy had his eyes closed as he slowly worked through a set of hand seals, mumbling under his breath, 'definitely gonna do it better than stupid Naruto.'

Feeling his good mood return at the sight, Itachi left the doorway, and finally made his way into the kitchen, as he'd intended to half an hour ago. "I am home, okaa-san," Itachi announced himself as he stopped by the counter.

The woman didn't jump; she'd likely sensed his every movement since he had arrived home. Turning away from the stove, Mikoto smiled at the sight of her eldest son. "Welcome back, Itachi-kun." Walking over, she pressed a light kiss to his forehead; Itachi had stopped giving her hugs about a year ago, for some inane reason that only a young boy would find prudent, so she settled for showing her affection in other ways. "How are you?" She asked, gently leading him to sit at the table.

"I'm fine, okaa-san." He gave her a wan smile. "No injuries. All I need is food and rest." He felt relief wash through him when she simply nodded at him and returned to preparing the meal. His mother was probably his most favorite person in the clan, behind his little brother. She was possibly the only person who understood and _respected_ his normal personality, and as such, she was also the only one who simply gave him space when he needed to cool down.

Watching as she checked the pot, however, Itachi sensed that it wasn't only for his sake that his mother remained silent. In fact, as he watched her shift from foot to foot, moving to one side of the kitchen and another, he was fairly sure that she was working on auto-pilot. She had something big on her mind. "Are you feeling troubled, okaa-san?"

Pausing, but not turning, Mikoto blinked. Then she continued adding to her dish. "I'm thinking of a mistake I made, Itachi-kun. A mistake that I am trying to correct with each passing day." His silence was her comfort. She shared an odd bond with her oldest son, but she wouldn't give it up for the world. "I think you know of Sasuke-chan's new friends."

Itachi raised an eyebrow that she couldn't see. "Haruno Sakura-san and Uzumaki Naruto-san."

A smile crossed her face as she sliced up more beef to add to the meal. "I can always trust you to watch out for Sasuke-chan..." A small laugh escaped her, but soon, her smile faded again. "Yes. Sakura-chan is a very smart little girl; curious and observant. Exactly the type of daughter I would wish to have. And Uzumaki-kun is..."

_So his name is no longer demon? _That was something that Itachi could smile for.

"...He is a quiet little boy, who does not share himself very easily," Mikoto finished after a moment. She turned around to look at her son. "My mistake is not realizing that until very recently. I allowed my logic to be clouded by emotions..." She trailed off, but she knew her son, and it was easy for her to tell that he understood the meaning underneath her words. Again, she smiled. "Luckily, I can now correct this flaw in my character."

His mother turned back to cooking, but watching her, he could tell that some of the weight had been lifted from her shoulders. It was interesting to see; he and his mother were very much alike, and yet still fundamentally different. Watching his mother was like getting a glimpse into what he might be in the future.

His ears caught her next words even as his thoughts drifted: "Yes... Sakura-chan truly is a curious little girl," Mikoto chuckled to herself, seeming introspective. "If not for her questioning, I might never have recognized that blemish in my self..."

_Curious, indeed,_ Itachi thought as his mother began humming. _Your sister seems to be something else, Haruno-san..._

Just something else for him to take note of.

* * *

She was dreaming, but knowing that didn't stop the images from playing across her mind's eye. Sakura was six years old and dreaming of being eight, ten, twelve, older... Her conscious mind recognized that the dreams she'd been having were necessary. They were the memories she could no longer recall so clearly without help, the people she would never see again as they once were, the things she had to see then because she never, _ever_ wanted to see them with her waking eye again.

The memories paused, and changed. In her bed, Sakura's face scrunched up and tiny whimpers escaped her throat as she watched an empty casket being lowered into the ground. This was one of the memories she hated the most, the ones she would work the hardest to stop from happening. It was also the memory that she saw the most often. No matter how many days passed, every morning that she was able to wake up and see her brother felt like a blessing of the most divine sort.

Mint green eyes snapped open abruptly, and for a moment, she just laid there, shivering and looking at the faded stars sticking to her ceiling. Sakura didn't want to dream, but she _needed_ to. Dreams kept her from being complacent. Being a child again was fun and relaxing... But she couldn't get used to it at the expense of her mission.

With a bit of effort, she slid out of her covers, then carefully climbed down from her bed. Reaching up to open her bedroom door was still strange, but she was getting used to it. Stifling a yawn, Sakura exited her room into the dark hallway, instinctively avoiding patches of moonlight. She stopped not to far from her blue-painted door, at a green one this time, and entered.

"Mmm, princess?" Came the tired mumble. "Close the door... Too bright..."

"Kay, nii-chan," she whispered, doing as told. A sleepy looking smile crossed her face, and Sakura toddled over to the bed against the far wall, where one of Jinya's cat-like eyes peered at her from the messy cocoon of blankets he always wrapped himself in to sleep.

Without saying anything else, Jin shifted around until part of the blankets could be tugged from under him, and with almost no effort, pulled his sister's tiny form up and onto the bed. As soon as she was situated, he closed the cocoon again and curled around her. "Night, princess," he yawned out.

"G'night," she mumbled back, burying her face into his chest. Somewhere deep in her mind, Sakura felt a bit embarrassed for climbing into her brother's bed because of a bad dream, but it wasn't hard to recall the cold nights after he was gone, when she would sit in his empty room and the only thing she could do was pretend that he was there.

With his baby sister in his arms, Jinya didn't even consider falling back asleep until her breathing evened out and the tight grip she had on his nightshirt loosened. He kept his eyes closed, but while his body rested, his mind was fully awake. _This makes eleven times. Eleven nightmares since the first. What happened to you...?_

It troubled him that she couldn't sleep without waking up at least once, yet he recognized that there wasn't much he could do about it except be there when she came wandering to him in the middle of the night. She didn't seem to be suffering from sleep deprivation, and her nightmares were never as bad as that first that left her shaken for days afterward, but... It didn't make sense. He wanted to know what started the nightmares in the first place.

He would stab who or whatever it was to death if he could, and probably enjoy it as well.

But no. His only comfort was that despite a certain Uchiha's suspicions, Sakura was still his same little princes, quiet and easy to startle, and rather impossible to get any real secrets out of. The girl hid things better than a storage seal when she had the incentive to. Not that such a thing would stop him from investigating.

Mentally, he sighed. _Just go to sleep, Jin_.

* * *

Today was October 10th, and to Uzumaki Naruto, that meant a lot of different things. It meant that he had no school, because it was a holiday, and even the administrative chuunin got the day off. It meant that he could sleep in, because who needed to wake up at six thirty in the morning when they had nowhere to go? And since he had nowhere to go, it also meant no watchers. Today, he probably wouldn't see Crow, or Neko, or Bear, or Wolf, even though he never actually saw the last one anyways. Wolf was sneaky like that.

It was also a festival day. If he looked out of his windows, he would see banners, and stands, and large groups of people dressed up as prettily as they could. And even though he wouldn't see Crow, or Neko, or Bear, he would see lots of people in masks just like them, so maybe it was a good thing he had no watchers that day. He would hate to confuse them.

And one couldn't forget his sixth birthday, even though truthfully, almost everyone did. Even Naruto did. Having a birthday didn't matter if nobody celebrated it. Tomorrow, though, he might get presents from the people that he didn't see today, so he supposed it was nice enough.

Finally, October 10th meant that just for that day, when everyone and everywhere else was apart from him, he would get to spend the day with Inu. If there was one reason for him to like the day, it had to be because he would be able to go and hang out in Inu's office.

As if summoned by the thoughts, the door to Naruto's room opened, and a familiar dog mask with wild gray hair poked its' way in. "Good morning, Naru-chan!" the voice greeted cheerfully.

Naruto grinned brightly. "Morning, Inu!" he chirped, bounding over to the door. "Can we go now?" The blonde asked, bouncing on his toes.

"Maa, maa, slow down Naru-chan," the tall man replied, crouching and still having to look down to see the boy. "I have some crayons and a nice big puzzle for us to work on once we get to the office, but first, I have to deal with a syphilis infected cross-dressing troglodyte."

"...Uh?" Naruto stared at Inu blankly.

Inu seemed to blink behind his mask. _Oh yeah. Newly six year old. Forgot._ He decided to elaborate. "I have to meet some old guy named Danzo and scare him away from you. You remember not to tell Hokage-sama when I say things like that, right, Naru-chan?"

"Uh-huh! What happens in ANBU stays in ANBU," Naruto recited, nodding enthusiastically. The phrase was practically burned into his brain after so long living in the ANBU dormitories. He was proud to say that he was one of the best secret keepers ever.

The grin was audible when Inu replied, "Good job, Naru-chan. Now, until I get back, you can have _these_."

The whiskered blonde couldn't contain a gasp when a wrapped box with a large paper bag on top appeared in Inu's hands, even though he was _positive_ that the man's appendages hadn't moved once. "Ramen for breakfast!" He cheered loudly, distracted from the thought as he caught the scent coming from the bag.

"And a birthday present!" Inu cheered as well, handing the gifts over to the grinning blonde. "The ramen is a gift from Ayame-chan and Teuchi-san, and my gift is under that, alright?"

"Yeah! Thank you, Inu!"

"Alright!" With everything clarified, Inu stood, waved to the boy, and then exited the room. As the door closed, he watched a tiny, almost unnoticeable pattern of inked seals crawl along the threshold of the door until all the edges were covered. With a nod, he used the a shunshin to return to his office.

It hurt to smile so much, especially after months of gray feelings, Kakashi couldn't help but think. But the tiny blonde made it easy for him to remember happier times. _You would be proud of him, Minato-sensei,_ he thought to himself. _I haven't provided the best life for him... But I'm trying_.

Part of 'trying,' it seemed, involved regularly visiting the Hokage for the sole purpose of talking down his old teammates and long time rival. He'd never met a man so hell-bent on turning humans into weapons throughout his entire life. With a sigh, the gray haired man realized that the more time he spent stalling on the meeting, the less time he would have to spoil his old teacher's child for the day.

"Here we go..."

* * *

The eleventh of October was a Saturday, and per habit, Sakura was awake at seven in the morning to 'help' her mother cook; in reality, she only set the table and stole the best bits of food when her mother wasn't looking. Recently, however, her morning ritual had included something else: "Did grandma reply yet?"

Having expected the question, Nadeshiko simply chuckled and continued cooking, easily shuffling around Sakura as the small girl stood by the counter. "Patience is a virtue, Sakura-chan."

"But I don't _want_ a virtue. I wanna know when we get to go see grandma! You said it would be _soon_, okaa-san!" For some reason, Sakura reminded herself of Sasuke with the whining she was doing, and the thought had the pink-haired girl fighting to hold her pout instead of snorting with laughter. Being six years old was _amusing_.

With more chuckling, the redheaded woman cast a glance at her daughter, who was tugging at her dress and looking up at her pleadingly. "Well, I suppose I _did_ say it would be soon. And you know what? A messenger left a scroll for us a bit earlier. Why don't you go ask your papa to open it and read it for you?"

Haruno Daisuke cast a _look_ at his wife from his seat at the table, where the half-asleep man was nursing a mug of black coffee. Still, he made room on his lap for his young daughter to climb up, and reached for the scroll that they had yet to open. "Well, let's take a look," the man half-grumbled out.

_Maa, otou-san is so slow to wake up in the mornings, _Sakura thought, watching as her father untied the string around the scroll at a painstakingly slow pace. His fingers appeared to be shaking slightly. "Hurry _up_, otou-san!"

"Okay, okay, Sakura-chan," Daisuke mumbled. He ran one of his shaking hands through his hair while the other one extended the scroll to its' full length. He skimmed it. "Ruriko-obaa-san is very excited to hear that you're going to be a shinobi, like Jinya-kun, and the rest of the family is as well. She's decided that instead of waiting another few years..." _This is exactly what I never wanted to hear,_ the man found himself thinking, "...We will have the full family reunion at the New Years. Since so many of your cousins have also decided to become shinobi recently, she wants to have everyone together for a little while."

"Oh!" Nadeshiko turned from her cooking to look at her husband in surprise. "Really? I figured that we wouldn't have another full reunion until Sakura-chan was a genin, at the very least. But it has been a while. How exciting! I can't wait to see all my baby sisters together again for once!" Her smile was bright enough to light the whole room. "What else did okaa-san have to say?"

As her father continued summarizing the letter, Sakura wiggled off of his lap, then tore out of the kitchen and up the stairs. She fully intended to jump on her big brother's bed, multiple times if possible, so that she could wake him up and share the news. _A full family reunion! Wow!_ The last time her entire family, had gathered in one place had been before she was born, and before Jinya was old enough to remember. Sakura was excited at the thought of meeting all the people she'd heard of but never seen in her life, since the Wave branch of the family had been decimated shortly before the reunion was originally scheduled.

But something bugged her.

_Why did otou-san look so unhappy about it...?_

* * *

In a darkened office, an elderly man with more bandages than skin visible sat at his desk, contemplating a meeting that he'd had the day before. Not for the first time, Shimura Danzo had been denied the right to access and train the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. He'd attempted to get his hands on the boy and his enormous potential so many times that he couldn't even be properly angry over the latest dismissal. Still, if the Hatake boy weren't so useful to the Leaf...

His thoughts shifted back to the present as he heard a series of short raps outside of door. "Enter," his gravelly voice called out. Danzo's one good eye remained locked on the form that entered, and as he recognized the face, his mind began racing. _What could you possibly have to say to me?_ "Give your report."

"Their plans have changed, Danzo-sama. The family plans to gather in one place at the New Year. They intend to base the gathering in Wave country with the main branch."

His eye widened. "That would be three years early. Explain."

"Many of the children in the family have made the decision to become shinobi. I believe they wish to train all of them together and find ways to keep contact with the less reachable members. The matriarch also wishes to address any less than favorable situations that some branches of the family are involved in and lend support, if possible."

"Hm..." His thoughts worked faster. This was an unprecedented stroke of good luck being given to him, but could he afford to take it? It was a matter of numbers, and more importantly, skill. So many possibilities...

After nearly four minutes of pure silence, Danzo looked up at his agent again, a small smile covering his features. "This is invaluable information. Keep me updated on the situation."

"Yes, Danzo-sama."

"Hm... They're still young, aren't they?" Danzo questioned rhetorically. "So many children could be quite useful... We shall see. Dismissed."

"Yes, Danzo-sama."

_What to do, what to do..._

* * *

Lol, I'm having too much fun with this. Questions?


	8. P r e l i m i n a r y

Well, nobody has guessed what I'm doing with Sakura and the kekkei genkai yet, so keep trying, I suppose. Some of you think that it will make Sakura too strong and change her basic role from 'support' to 'combat' type, but since you don't know exactly what I'm doing, I can't blame you for that. I will, however, say that I'm using the kekkei genkai as more of a plot-device than a power up. I'm not interested in power ups.

This is more about the butterfly effect. If you want to, try and look at all the things Sakura has done 'differently' from in canon, and see how the results started off small and started going out of control. I suppose I could've named this story 'one small change' or 'the butterfly effect,' but I've read too many stories with those same titles, so I was like... No, basically. Oh well.

Anyways... Here's chapter eight.

* * *

The first thing Sakura noticed after two days of not seeing Naruto was that the goggles were back. She couldn't keep the surprise off her face as the whiskered boy approached the big tree that was their unofficial meeting spot with dark green goggles set atop his head and a bright grin taking up much of his face. It felt like the first time she saw him in the library all over again, except that instead of seeming strange, this Naruto was so _familiar_. He was even smiling so wide that his eyes were closed, just as she remembered.

"They're _awesome_, aren't they?" Naruto exclaimed, plopping down on the grass in front of her. "I think this is the best birthday gift _ever!_" He paused. "Hi, by the way."

She couldn't help but grin back at his enthusiasm; she hadn't seen him acting so hyper in what felt like _forever_. "Hi to you too, Naruto. It's your birthday today?" She asked. Of course, she knew his birthday had been two days ago, but she wasn't supposed to. It was best to feign ignorance.

"Nah, my birthday was Friday," the boy replied, reaching up to fiddle with the goggles as they slid down some. It seemed that they were a little too big for him yet, and his wild hair was doing most of the work to hold them up. "When's your birthday, Sakura-chan?"

"May 28th," she replied lightly. "I didn't know it was your birthday, I would've gotten you a gift too."

Watching her eyes drift back up to his goggles with that drifting sort of look that Sakura sometimes got, Naruto briefly squinted his eyes in thought, before grinning at her brightly and earning a startled look. "Here, you can try them!" With that, he pulled the goggles off his head and unceremoniously plopped them onto hers, pushing her long bangs out of her face in the process of situating them. "There you go."

Blinking with surprise, Sakura reached up and felt at her head, as if unsure of what had just happened. And then she smiled at him. "Thanks, Naruto. Let's go find somewhere so I can see my reflection!"

"Alright!" Naruto took his time standing up as she scurried over to a nearby bench, where Jinya seemed to be giving himself a headache over a scroll in his lap. When Sakura climbed up onto the bench to poke at her brother's cheek, he wandered over as well. "What'cha reading?" He asked curiously.

Seeming oblivious to the finger poking at his cheek, Jin smiled at the younger boy, who'd quickly opened up once he realized that Jin was actually nice person. It was actually a bit concerning, how easily the boy trusted once he found a reason to. _Then again, it took him ages to start talking to Sakura-chan._

Shaking his head, the white haired boy tilted the scroll slightly to show Naruto some of the complex kanji and diagrams covering the page. "Since Sakura-hime is so determined to become a medic-nin when she grows up, I've been trying to learn some of the techniques so I can help her with them as she advances. Unfortunately, medical ninjutsu are some of the hardest to learn in the world, and that's just the ones that don't require you to know all about anatomy."

Naruto seemed a bit confused. "Anatomy?"

"The human body," Jin clarified, leaning away from Sakura's attempt at a wet willy. _Where in the world did she pick that up?_ He wondered, glancing at the girl from the corner of his eyes. _Little kids do the nastiest stuff..._

"Ah," the blonde replied with a tone of realization. He glanced at Sakura. "How come you're ignoring Sakura-chan?"

"She kept jumping on me when I was trying to sleep yesterday. I'm not talking to her until she says sorry for it."

"But you _tickled_ me!" Sakura protested, pouting and crossing her arms over her chest with a huff.

Pretending that he hadn't heard her, Jinya smiled at Naruto, who was stifling laughter at Sakura's expression. "In any case, it's about time for me to stop trying to decode this stuff. What did you and Sakura-chan plan to do today?"

"_Nii-chan!_"

Naruto glanced at Sakura again, then smiled brightly at Jin. "We were gonna find a mirror so that Sakura-chan can see herself in my awesome goggles. Aren't they cool?"

Looking at Sakura for the first time since she'd come running over to the bench, Jin gave a nod of agreement as he saw the oculars perched on his younger sister's head. "You're right, they are pretty awesome. Are you sure you should let her play with them? She might run away with them and never say sorry," he goaded, poking at the pink-haired girl with his index finger.

"No I wouldn't!"

"I don't think Sakura-chan would do that," Naruto replied, playing along with Jin and acting like Sakura wasn't there, even though they were both looking right at her. "I think she'd say sorry if you said sorry for tickling her first."

"Well I would, but she jumped on my bed before I tickled her, so shouldn't she go first?" He rationalized to the six year old.

"Nuh-uh!"

Taking Sakura's side, Naruto turned and gave Jinya his most solemn look. "I think you have to be the taller person here and say sorry first."

_**SHANNARO! You tell him, Naruto! **_Inner Sakura yelled, shaking her astral fist at Jinya's figure, while both he and Sakura fought to hold in laughter at Naruto's words.

With a bright grin for Naruto, Jinya conceded, "I think you're right Naruto-kun." Turning to Sakura's grinning figure, Jinya set down his scroll and opened his arms wide. "I'm sorry for tickling you, princess. Can I get a hug please?"

Squealing, Sakura darted into his arms to accept the hug. "Okay, 'pology accepted. I'm sorry too, Jinya." Even though the entire situation had been playful, she would much rather have Jinya pay attention to her. _Maybe I really _am_ as spoiled as Sasuke-kun is..._

Noticing Naruto looking a bit awkwardly at their show of affection, Jinya made a split decision and reached out one arm to scoop the boy up. "Smile! You make a pretty good peace-keeper, I think," he told the wide-eyed blonde.

"O-okay," Naruto replied shakily, doing his best to grin instead of looking shocked.

"Great! Now, I seem to recall something about finding a mirror. I think the lake will do just fine for a substitute, ne?" Leaving no room for argument, Jinya grabbed his scroll, then scooped a child under each of his arms and walked off, carrying his giggling bundles like a pair of potato sacks.

* * *

"Itachi."

_Again?_ The ten year found himself thinking as he automatically paused in his stride and turned towards his father's authoritative voice. _Can I not spend one day at home without receiving another of these so-called 'talks'?_ "Yes, father?" His bland tone revealed nothing of his emotions as he looked up at his father.

Fugaku looked down at his son imperiously, unconsciously straightening his shoulders as he was faced with the boy's unamused obsidian stare. "The elders and I have heard rumors of your recent association with a genin from a civilian family. We feel the need to question this usage of your time, when you could be accepting more missions befitting your skill or training to increase your abilities. We cannot see any benefit to your _acquaintance_ with this child."

The stress on the word was clear; his _acquaintance_, because any other status for someone outside of the Uchiha clan would obviously not be tolerated. Not that Itachi had expected any other reaction when his father finally caught wind of his little 'meetings' with Haruno Jinya. "It is as you say, father. Haruno-san is an acquaintance of mine from the Academy. Our lunch breaks sometimes coincide." It wasn't a lie, and it didn't exactly address the 'concerns' his father spoke of, but Itachi had been dealing with the man for his entire life and knew exactly how to work situations in his favor.

Just as he predicted, Fugaku was appeased by the excuse. "Hm. I see. Lunch, and nothing more?"

"Mainly. Our siblings seem to be friendly with each other and we occasionally meet when they do." It wasn't as if he was going to tell the man that he and Jin were investigating his younger sister, who they were beginning to suspect was an emerging genius. Personally, Itachi would never subject any child to the attentions of his clan as soon as they caught a whiff of 'talent' on the horizon.

A sneer crossed Fugaku's face. "Ah, yes. Sasuke has been meeting with a civilian child and that _boy_ recently. I've been meaning to speak with him about that. I thought I had been raising him better..." Closing his eyes as he frowned in thought, the man completely missed it as Itachi's eyes narrowed into a fierce glare.

Itachi continued glaring as Fugaku turned his back on him without another word, beginning to walk to another part of the compound. If Fugaku thought he could interfere with the first friends that Sasuke had ever made, he was sorely mistaken. Itachi wouldn't allow it.

In another part of the compound, Sasuke was sweating as he practiced throwing shuriken at wooden posts. His aim was better with kunai than it was with the little throwing stars, even though he was particularly skilled for his age either way. To him, it wasn't enough; Naruto and Sakura were both better with shuriken than he was, even though he was better at throwing kunai, and that wasn't acceptable. _I bet nii-chan threw better than all of us when he was my age_.

"Sasuke."

Startled by the sound, Sasuke threw a bit wide with his next throw. It still hit the target, but only barely. Flushed with embarrassment, the boy turned and focused his large black eyes on his father's brown ones, trying ignore the disapproving frown he was receiving. "Yes, father?"

"You need to work harder on your aim," the man spoke, folding his arms into his sleeves. "Your aim should be perfect with stationary targets by now. When Itachi was your age, he already had sixty percent accuracy with moving targets."

"Sorry," the boy mumbled, looking down and fiddling with the ends of his sleeves.

"I'm disappointed in you, Sasuke." The words froze the child in place, and he went from fiddling with his sleeves to clenching his fists and trying not to cry. "Instead of taking time to train your accuracy and learn more skills, I hear that you have been running around with some civilian girl and that _boy_. They are not befitting of your status as an Uchiha, especially an heir to the main house. You will stop this association immediately and focus on your studies, is that understood?"

In another time and place, Sasuke would've heard these words and immediately agreed just to see if it might make his father approve of him for once. Here, however, he found himself indecisive. His father wanted him to stop playing with Sakura and Naruto, but... _Sakura-chan and Naruto are my friends,_ he thought, frowning and wiping at his face to hide a tear that slipped past his defenses. _I don't wanna stop playing with them! And we do train together. It's not a waste of time..._

"Sasuke!" Fugaku spoke sharply, frowning at the lack of reply. "I said that you would stop associating with them. Is that _understood_?"

"Why?" He found himself asking. "They're my friends. And we _do_ train together. Why do I have to stop being friends with them?"

Staring at his younger son, the man felt a mixture of shock and disgust welling up within him. His child was defying him, and for what? _Friendship_? With a civilian girl and a demon container?

The sound of a loud smack echoed through the training grounds.

"I have never been so completely ashamed of you in my life. Right now, you aren't even fit to call yourself an Uchiha," Fugaku all but spat to his shell-shocked son, who was gingerly holding his reddening cheek with both hands.

Sasuke stared up at his father as if he'd never seen the man before in his life. _He... He..._ The boy took one step back, then another, before turning and running away, not even trying to hide his tears as the pain in his face began to flare. _IhateyouIhateyouIhateyou...!_

Both Itachi and Mikoto looked up from their tea when the door to the house opened and the sound of child crying was heard. "Sasuke?" Closer to the kitchen's entrance, Itachi had just gotten up when Sasuke rushed into the kitchen and impacted his legs, sobbing. Immediately worried, he lifted the boy into his arms and felt tears soaking the wide collar of his shirt as his brother squeezed his neck tightly. "Sasuke, what's wrong?"

By this time, Mikoto was around the table and standing next to her children, and she was the first to catch sight of the reddening hand print across the left side of her baby's face. Her insides froze as she stared at the mark and listened to her child gasp out the story between heaving sobs. By the end of the story, her fear and worry had turned into pure anger at a level she didn't think she'd ever reached before in her life.

Unconsciously, Itachi tightened his grip on Sasuke's crying form, feeling his mother's killing intent rise with every passing second even as she ran her hands through Sasuke's hair and made gentle noises to help calm the boy down. While he was more than outraged, he had the feeling that it was nothing close to the anger that had turned Mikoto's eyes into obsidian chips of ice.

As Sasuke finally calmed down to hiccups and shuddering breaths, Itachi gathered the courage to whisper, "Okaa-san?"

Finally moving her eyes from Sasuke's swollen cheek, Mikoto looked at her older son, and gave him a smile that probably wasn't meant to be as intimidating as it ended up looking. "Please help your brother clean up and give him some ice for his cheek, Itachi-kun. I'm going to be going out shortly." Without waiting for any questions, the black haired woman turned and left the kitchen at a brisk pace.

Itachi couldn't help but wonder where his mother would be 'going' in such a torrential mood. Still, he did as he was told, and within minutes, he had Sasuke cleaned up and situated in his lap with a cold compress on his cheek. Just as he contemplated changing his brother into pajamas and putting him to bed early, he caught the sound of footsteps coming back down the hall. He looked up and briefly felt his insides go cold.

Mikoto had changed out of her dress and into a simple pair of brown capri pants and a long sleeved black shirt with the Uchiha crest on either shoulder, as well as the back. She wore no weapons holsters, nor was her old forehead protector anywhere on her person, but his mother had on a heavy pair of combat boots, and anyone who had ever battled her knew that those boots were the only weapon she really needed.

His mother looked as kind as she always did, but the sight of her old combat gear was enough to make the ten-year old boy want to back away. Most people failed to acknowledge it, but his mother _was_ a jounin with a fully developed Sharingan. She was also the person who'd molded him into the efficient shinobi that he was today.

"If your father wishes to strike another Uchiha, then I am obligated as his loving wife to give him a much livelier target than a five year old boy, ne, Itachi-kun?" Her smile was deceptively kind as she looked at him cradling Sasuke, and try as he might, Itachi couldn't summon up any kind of sympathy for his father. "I think Uruchi-obasan and Teyaki-ojisan have been meaning to have dinner with you and Sasuke-chan. You two should go visit them."

It wasn't really a suggestion. Itachi nodded.

"Great! I'll see you when you get home tonight, Itachi-kun." Without any further words, Mikoto walked out of the house, controlling her pace as she began scouring the grounds for her husband's chakra signature. If he wanted to hit someone, she would _give_ him someone to hit.

_To think I married a man who would hit a child in anger. How can you expect the clan to follow you, Fugaku, when you can't even discipline a five year old without violence...? I don't care. You won't lay a _finger_ on my baby again when I'm done with you._

Fugaku had no way to predict it, but what he regarded as a relatively tiny loss of control on his part was the pebble that would start a landslide in the future.

* * *

It was that time of the month again, and Naruto didn't know whether to feel dread or anticipation. On one hand, he would be getting free ramen from Ichiraku's and hanging out with the old man. On the other hand, however, he would... Well, he'd be hanging out with the old man. _Not that there's anything wrong with the old man,_ the boy thought to himself, fidgeting in his chair outside the Hokage's office.

Really, there _wasn't_ anything wrong with the old man. He was just... Old. And a little bit creepy, that way he smiled sometimes and looked all pensive during the others. Old man Sarutobi also had this habit of asking questions; lots and lots of questions. And since he was the Hokage, Naruto couldn't really _not_ answer the questions, even though the old man liked to pretend he really could by nodding and waiting a few minutes to ask the same question again, just with different words.

Naruto didn't like answering questions, especially when every time he answered, it seemed to give the person asking him things fuel for _even more questions_, as if the initial ones hadn't been stressful enough. It was probably because he'd grown up with a bunch of ANBU, where a lot of the questions he asked at first had 'classified' for an answer, or sometimes, he just didn't receive an answer at all.

Of course, that wasn't to say that he disliked answering the old man's questions. It was more that he felt like every answer he gave to a question was being taken as if it had fifteen different meanings. It was confusing, sometimes. Once, the old man had started off asking him if he liked going to the playground, yet somehow ended up questioning him on all the different children he knew and how he felt about them.

And that was another thing; why did he have to have some kind of 'feeling' about every person he met, every place he went, and every single thing he did? Why couldn't he just say that he met 'this person' and 'this happened' without trying describe how he reacted to every single thing that went on during the time? And why was the old man always so curious about every single person he met?

The sheer number of questions he'd already answered about Sakura-chan, Jinya, Sasuke and Mikoto-san was just crazy. Shouldn't the old man have run out of things to ask after the first two times he asked about them? And what did the taste of the food Mikoto-san made even have to do with anything?

Naruto was tired of questions.

When the door to the Hokage's office opened, the blonde boy broke free from his thoughts and looked up, expecting to see the Hokage. But it was a different old man, with a wrinkly face, only one visible eye, and bunches of bandages all over his body. He froze up when the elderly man paused in front of him and _looked_ at him, sort of like he was a juicy piece of meat.

With a quiet squeak, Naruto slid off his chair and ran to hide behind the secretary lady's desk. He amended one of his sayings, 'running away was for sissies.' It was officially _also_ for getting away from scary looking old men who wanted to eat you.

After a minute or so, a poke to his shoulder forced Naruto stop clenching his bright blue eyes shut. Looking up, he met the amused eyes of the secretary lady whose name he still had yet to learn. "Is he gone?" he whispered.

"Yes, he's gone," she confirmed with a smirk. "Hokage-sama is waiting for you to go in."

He blinked. "Oh... Okay." With that, he quickly peeked around the desk to make sure it wasn't a trick, and then all but ran into the old man's office, not stopping until he was in front of the man's desk.

"Ojiisan!" All but forgetting about his encounter five minutes ago, Naruto immediately implemented a new tactic he'd thought up in the last month. "Ojiisan, Sakura-chan's going to have a family reunion on New Years so she's going to be leaving in a few weeks and Sasuke's whole family is supposed to have some kind of festival with fireworks inside their compound even though there's already gonna be a festival going on in the village and Sasuke asked Mikoto-san if I could go to his family's festival but she didn't think it was a good idea because I'm not family so I'm not gonna go to it but-"

Sarutobi blinked.

With a giant gasp of breath, Naruto continued, "-I'm still gonna celebrate with Inu so it's all okay and other than that everything is normal and everything is fine at school and I got all A's on my report card in English and Math but not gym because I don't like the gym lady so I don't do stuff in gym and I do other stuff outside of gym anyways so it's okay even though Sakura-chan thinks I should so I don't get a bad grade but I don't really care-"

"Naruto-kun?"

Another gasp. "-Jinya thinks Sakura-chan is right or at least he says that but he really thinks its funny because he had the same gym teacher when he went to civilian school and she was mean then too so he didn't like to do gym either even though when he went to the Academy he ended up having to do everything all over again anyways and he didn't like it there either but I think that's because Jinya doesn't like taijutsu because he says that he gets bruises really easily and I guess that kinda hurts but I don't know because all my bruises heal really fast even without Sakura-chan's help because she's learning how to be a medic-nin and I think she's really good at it-"

"Naruto, wha-"

Gasp. "-but Sakura-chan is really good at a lot of stuff because she reads really fast and Jinya helps her a lot so that she doesn't have to figure it out on her own and I think that she might even be really smart even without help even though Sasuke says that everybody has to have help before they can figure things out on their own because that's the only way to learn how to figure things out or something like that I wasn't really paying attention and that's all so can we go get ramen now?" A final gasp.

The Sandaime stared at Naruto and blinked, still trying to sort out the mass of information he was given; at least, the parts that he could hear. They sort've blended together into one long, strange word with gasps in between.

Looking back at the old man, Naruto wondered if his 'rant like Sasuke does' tactic had actually worked and stopped the Hokage from questioning him for forever and a day. Maybe Sasuke talked all weird for a _reason..._

After another minute or so of staring, Sarutobi blinked once again, then tapped ashes out of his pipe. He decided not to ask any questions about the expulsion of information he'd just received, not until he had it a bit more sorted out. "Ramen, you say?"

Naruto cheered. _Success!_

* * *

Inside of a large, cave-like room, Danzo stood upon a makeshift stage and looked out on the three teams of four that he'd hand-picked for his next big task. He felt pride as he looked at the uniform rows of masked and cloaked shinobi, all with the same rigid stance and perfect attention on him. To him, _this_ was the epitome of 'shinobi.' These were exactly the kind of soldiers that he wished for all of Leaf to have.

The Will of Fire was admirable, but it was _fire_ that tended to burn _leaves_.

"Those of you in this room," the one eyed man began, "Are those that I chose specifically for your talent and dedication. Soon, all of you, the Roots of the Leaf, will undertake a mission to finally eradicate some of the strays who think themselves powerful enough to turn down the kind hand of Leaf and her shinobi. These people are arrogant enough to remain side by side with us, yet act in autonomy, without even claiming another village to support them. They need to be cut down to size, and you in this room will be the ones to hold the shears.

"There are approximately six weeks of time until this mission begins. Root will gather all the information it can in that time, and all of you will train above and beyond your limits. This will not be an easy task, but I know that you, my loyal soldiers, are fully capable of completing it. Feel pride for my trust in your abilities. When you are training in these next few weeks, remember these words, and know that there is no way for you to fail this mission." Danzo took a moment to look over them once again, then smiled grimly. "Dismissed."

_You could only hide away from me for so long, Karibi Ruriko. Soon, you and all of yours will be no more._


	9. C l u e s A n d S i g n s

Still no concrete guesses on the kekkei genkai, but that's how I like it, so yay. And the Uchiha thing... All will be explained in due time. Definitely.

Also, **does Jinya's character bother anyone?**

I can't really do anything about it being little-kid oriented right now, sorry. And, finally... This story is going to end up **really freaking AU-ish**. Okay? Okay.

* * *

After six and a half years of being the best older brother that he could, Jinya was confident in saying that he knew more about Sakura than any other person in the world, including (_especially_) his parents. His father had chosen her name and bought her the first books she ever read, but Jin was the one that had taught her to read. Nadeshiko had chosen everything from Sakura's first toys to the type of clothes she eventually came to love, but Jin was the one that she went to when May 28th came around, to find out what her daughter might like as a present. Their parents were still convinced that 'inner Sakura' was an imaginary friend, and that she'd disappeared recently, but Jin knew better.

Another thing that he knew and which they were woefully uninformed of was that Sakura didn't really have a 'thinking' face, if only for the sole reason that she was _always_ thinking about something. His sister's mind seemed to work on multiple levels; part of it focused on interacting with her surroundings, another part would consciously filtering the things she said to people or the reactions she had to things, and simultaneously, a third part would be off working on some problem or tangent that had absolutely nothing to do wherever she was in real-time. Since her thoughts were always so busy, not to mention quick, there was never a visible distinction between her normal actions and the times when she was being thoughtful.

However, Jin had noticed over the years little signs that told him when she was thinking of something 'big' or complex. Sakura was normally talkative, at least to friends and family, but when her mind was in over-drive, she got silent. It was different from the shy or confused type of quiet she showed around unfamiliar faces or people she didn't necessarily trust, but one had to look for it to realize that. She would also start fiddling with the ends of her sleeves or whatever was closest to her hands, even if she was doing something else at the same time. Last, but not least, her eyes would become slightly unfocused, as if she were looking at two different scenes at the same time: the place where she actually was, and whatever was in her mind's eye.

That night, his sister sat through dinner with only a few sentences and came dangerously close to unraveling the table cloth, but he was the only one who noticed, as Nadeshiko told a lively story about a crush she'd had on a chuunin as a child and Daisuke gave her sullen, almost pouting looks in between bites of food. His mother spared a comment about how _he_ seemed distracted, but never noticed that it was because he was watching Sakura.

After dinner, as he was doing the dishes and Sakura was drying them, he couldn't help but ask, "Is everything alright, squirt? You seem pretty thoughtful tonight."

Sakura smiled up at him as she was setting a dish into the cabinet and nodded. "I'm fine nii-chan."

It wasn't a lie. There wasn't anything wrong, not really. Not _yet_, at least. But in the future...? That was what kept her attention. Ever since returning to the past, Sakura had focused on little things, like giving Naruto a friend, beginning her training much earlier before, and subtly getting her older brother to learn medical ninjutsu in the hopes that someday, he would use it to save his own life. Those actions had unintended side-effects, like meeting Sasuke before the massacre, getting Naruto to begin training his already huge chakra early, finding out about her not-so-civilian roots, and inadvertently causing an early reunion.

But those were all _tiny_ things. Truthfully, she could see where they would have greater effects in the future; Sasuke would have someone other than his clan to rely on and might not follow his former path, Naruto was already acting differently than he would in the future, Jinya had somehow made friends with Itachi, she had a whole new class of techniques that she'd never known she was capable of, and if she didn't work things carefully, there was a chance that there might not _be_ a Team Seven in the future since their class rankings would be different. She hadn't even met Ino, and in a trivial difference, she'd never received the red ribbon that kept her hair out of her face and _would've_ led to her growing a measure of self-confidence (had she actually been six years old.)

Yet, even though those were noticeable differences, there were _other_ events she needed to focus on. Like the Uchiha massacre, which was maybe two years away. Unless she'd unknowingly changed something large, there would be no change in that event. And she didn't know how she, a six year old girl from a supposedly civilian family, would do anything about that. What if she stopped it, and the clan ended up going through with its' coup d'etat?

How would she make sure that Naruto and Sasuke were on her team this time around? If Naruto passed, how would he ever learn his signature clone technique? What if, for some reason, Kakashi wasn't their teacher? If he was their teacher, how would she get him to train them _properly_ this time? She still didn't know what his deal was the first time around.

She didn't even want to think about the entire Chuunin Exam debacle and its aftermath. If there were more Uchiha, would Orochimaru still go after Sasuke? If there weren't, how would she stop him from giving Sasuke a curse seal? If everything went as it did before, how would she stop the Sandaime from dying? Yet, if she stopped the Sandaime from dying, why would Tsunade ever come to Konoha? What if Orochimaru somehow died; what would happen to Otogakure and its forces?

What could she possibly do about Root? And for that matter, was Sai apart of the organization yet? Or was he still an orphan somewhere in Konoha, or wherever Danzo had picked him up? Was it even feasible for her to save him from that this time around?

And that was only contemplating the big events from the 'simple' days of her life, before Akatsuki, Uchiha Madara, and the Fourth Great Shinobi War.

Sometimes, Sakura wondered why Tsunade had entrusted _her_ with this task. Why not Naruto, with his monstrous chakra reserves and amazing ability to change people? Why not Kakashi, an elite jounin, or Shikamaru, the master tactician? Why didn't Tsunade return _herself_? Why didn't she send more than one person back, instead of just Sakura?

She hated to admit it, but when she didn't slow down and look at things one tiny bit at a time, Sakura felt completely overwhelmed by the 'has been' and 'will be' and 'what if?' kind of thoughts she had. Between her dreams of her own past and living day to day, knowing that the people she'd come to love in the future would never really be the ones she remembered, it was a huge weight on her unarguably tiny shoulders.

Not to say that she regretted accepting the mission, of course. It was just... A lot.

"C'mon, Sakura-chan. You can practice your technique on my bruises before bed."

_Definitely worth it, though._

* * *

At long last, Itachi's two week break in between tours of duty had arrived. While the boy couldn't say that he _disliked_ being apart of the most elite forces of the Leaf, it was also amazingly rejuvenating to wake up and know that he wouldn't be following around a five year old, deflecting assassination attempts or being sent off to some distant corner of Fire Country in order to gather information or slice through the arteries of unsuspecting men in their own homes.

He'd made something similar to a mental list of things he wished to accomplish in his fourteen days of essentially free time, which ranged from restocking his sweets supply to silently mocking his father at the dinner table by staring at the bruises he was covered in. He had plans to keep his training light, at least in comparison to the mandatory ANBU workouts, and spend some time reading academically useless novels to relax his over worked mind. Of course, he would only read such books after mentally putting several puzzles through the ringer, including but not limited to the six year-olds that were friends with his little brother and his mother's suddenly revived passive-aggressive personality traits.

At the top of the list, if he could get away with it with Sasuke around, was sleeping in every day until after breakfast... _Oh. Speak of the devil,_ he thought, listening to the pattering of small feet heading toward his room.

"Nii-chan! Are you awake yet?" Sasuke's childish voice called through the door. Without waiting for a reply, the boy trotted in to the darkened room and stopped near the head of Itachi's bed. "Breakfast is done, nii-chan! Can we train afterward? You promised you'd teach me how to use the bokken from my birthday!"

"Sasuke..." Came his muffled voice from beneath the blankets. "You..." He paused before he could complete his plea (_order, really_) for the boy to go on without him, and had a short series of flashbacks featuring Jinya rambling on and on about his 'extraordinarily talented baby sister.'

"Nii-chan?" The boy recoiled, then, as two fingers reached out to poke his forehead. "Gah! Stop doing that!"

Moving just enough of the covers for part of his face to be seen, Itachi peeked out at the smaller boy, ignoring his protests. "Go eat. I'll get up soon, and after I eat, we can train you to use a ninjato." He was _not_ jealous of another pair of siblings. He _wasn't_.

"Okay!" Sasuke squealed, zooming out of the room with excitement bubbling in his veins. Itachi was _home_ and _awake_ and he was going to _train_ with him! He was so excited! It didn't matter if Sakura was learning medical techniques and Naruto could sneak up on jounin without getting caught, because _he_ was going to learn how to use a ninjato and they were way cooler than being sneaky or healing cuts!

Back in the room, Itachi sighed mentally, and contemplated working up the willpower to get out of bed.

"Finally decided to stop being lazy and train with your baby brother, eh Itachi-kun?" With an ease born of experience, Shunshin no Shisui completely disregarded the kunai pressed against his throat by his younger cousin, who went from alert to _very not amused_ as he realized who it was in his room.

"I thought I told you to stop using the body flicker to get into my room," Itachi remarked dully, slipping his kunai back under his pillow and sitting up, realizing that any attempts to go back to sleep would be futile. "When did you return from border patrol?"

Shisui smiled genially and replied, "Yesterday evening. Raidou lost the bet on how many foreign ninja we'd run into and gets to take care of my mission report for me. I think that might've been the most boring border assignment I've had since my very first. But enough about that, how have you been? What's this mess I've been hearing about auntie Mikoto giving your pops a beat down?"

It took all of his willpower not to pinch the bridge of his nose; why did Shisui have to be possibly the nosiest Uchiha in existence? And if he'd only returned the evening before, how had he somehow caught up on the clan's ridiculous rumor mill? What Itachi wanted to say was, 'go away and let me sleep,' but he knew better after five years of knowing the teen. "Let me shower and eat breakfast. We can talk about what you've missed once I've showed Sasuke-kun the basic exercises."

"Of course. You know me so well, Itachi-kun!"

"...Get out, Shisui."

Realistically, Itachi should've been able to look back at every other time he'd attempted to relax in his own home, and realized that something would always, _always_ come up. What were the odds that the very day he essentially began a two week vacation was the same day his most mischievous family member would return from a long-term mission? If it were only his father and Sasuke interrupting his relaxation time, he could probably work around it. But with Shisui back... Well.

Uchiha Shisui, age fourteen, had started off as Itachi's designated 'playmate' before Sasuke was born and ended up being the reason that he shot to prodigy status from just being the very quiet Uchiha heir. It was no coincidence that Shisui, possibly the most skilled child of the Uchiha clan at the time, was chosen to mentor Itachi. Having a 'genius' for a friend did exactly what the clan had hoped for, and brought out the genius in _him_.

As a small child, Itachi had been shy, quiet as a mouse, and hard to trick into speaking. He lingered behind his mother's legs whenever they went out, hid in cupboards whenever clan elders came by to visit, and tended to get picked on the few times he went outside the Uchiha district for looking small and distinctly girly. When he was five years old, Fugaku sought to remedy that by having him train with Shisui, who had already graduated the Academy at age nine and activated his Sharingan shortly afterward.

His father hadn't realized that, despite his skill, Shisui took after his deceased older brother Obito in personality. He did what none before him had managed, and gave Itachi some facsimile of social skills while inadvertently showing everyone in the clan that there was more to the boy than met the eye.

To this very day, Itachi remained unsure of whether he should thank the teen or give him his absolute loathing. It was nice to be recognized, but he wasn't sure all the pressure from the clan was worth it. Of course, without Shisui he would've never figured out how a 'big brother' was supposed to act after Sasuke was born...

Two hours after waking up, Itachi found himself in the small training grounds behind his house, watching Sasuke haphazardly swing his bokken at a wooden training post. The sound-effects the boy made with each hit (_"Hyah! Hooh! Wham! Pa! Bow!"_) were providing him with all the entertainment he needed to keep himself awake. It would probably be prudent for him to go over and correct his brother's form at some point, though.

"How about that talk, Itachi-kun?" Shisui shifted slightly, smiling, and barely missed being impaled with an ANBU-issue ninjato. He just loved sneaking up on his little cousin!

_One day, I'm going to kill him by accident,_ Itachi thought, not even bothering to try and scold the teen this time. "Pick a rumor and I'll clarify."

Sitting down next to the younger boy, Shisui presented the first thing on his mind: "I hear uncle is sleeping in a guest house while auntie Mikoto cools down. Something about Sasuke-chan."

Remembering Sasuke crying still made him angry, and the memory of his mother still sent chills down his spine. "Father did not approve of Sasuke making friends outside of the clan, and attempted to forbid him from seeing them. When Sasuke defied him, Father struck him in the face."

Shisui seemed to cringe. "Ouch. He must have a death wish. There's no way in hell auntie would tolerate _that_. I still remember what she did to those bullies when you were six." He paused, thoughtful. "So Sasuke-chan stood up for himself? I'm proud of the brat! And here I thought he was too spoiled for anything like that."

Itachi couldn't hold in his snort. "No, he's definitely spoiled." With the exception of Fugaku, _everybody_ spoiled Sasuke. The boy was just too... Bright. He honestly dreaded the day when his litte brother had to face the harsh truths of reality; it might just break him. Itachi didn't want to imagine how such an experience might change his innocent younger brother.

"Heh... Probably. And speaking of friends outside the clan, who's yours?" Shisui leered and waggled his brows suggestively. "Is it a _girl_? Is little Itachi-kun finally growing up and _dating_?"

Glaring, the boy replied, "_He_ is Haruno-san, the older brother of one of Sasuke-kun's little friends."

For some reason, Shisui seemed even more delighted at this. "So those little lunch meetings at the dango shop _are _dates then? And it's a boy? How cute! But have you told auntie that you aren't giving her any grandchildren?" He flickered out of the way just in time to avoid a small fireball to the head, and reappeared on the other side of his cousin's irritated frame. "Haha, I managed to rile you up, Itachi-kun!"

_Why am I friends with this idiot?_ Sometimes, Itachi really wondered.

* * *

The first time Naruto met Sasuke's older brother, he immediately realized that he knew exactly who this person was. Itachi and Crow stood the same way, had the same vocal inflections on certain words, and even had the same 'paying-attention' pose where they crossed their arms behind their back and looked down to the side. After not seeing Crow for three days, the blonde boy _wanted_ to glomp him, but he didn't. ANBU identities were secrets, and what happened in ANBU stayed in ANBU.

But he still gave the older boy an especially bright smile when Sasuke and Sakura were talking to Mikoto-san. It was no wonder that Sasuke thought his big brother was the best thing ever; he had the coolest one since Inu!

Even if Itachi _did_ seem a little bit girly looking when he stood next to his mom.

The first time Sakura saw the Itachi of this time period, she didn't realize who she was looking at. She and Naruto had gone over to play Blind Man's Bluff behind Sasuke's house, and upon entering the house, her first thought was '_why is Mikoto-san wearing men's clothing?_' Of course, as soon as Sasuke opened his mouth to excitedly introduce the person, she realized who it was.

Without the harsh lines in his face and a forehead protector, Itachi looked very much like a shorter, male clone of his mother. The resemblance was uncanny, from their eyelashes to their facial features to the shapes of their eyes and even the way that the two walked barefoot around the kitchen of the main house. It made the resemblance between Sasuke and Itachi in the future almost negligible in comparison.

It was hard to contain a jump the first time the older boy spoke, because for some reason, she'd been expecting the same spine-chilling baritone that the man held in the future, the monotone voice with which he delivered words of death so easily. But what she got was the voice of a ten year old boy, certainly not high pitched or squeaky, but obviously not that of a grown man.

Over the next few days, it was easy to see why Sasuke could be so fixated on his brother in her future and this past. If she didn't know just what the future held, or the reputation that Itachi carried as a prodigy even now, she would think that he was just another dedicated older brother, like Jinya. He kept a watchful eye on them, took care of scrapes, quietly teased Sasuke, and treated Naruto like every other child. He had the sort of presence that both drew people in and made them stand back to stare in awe; an understated kind of majesty...

Caught up in his presence as she was, it took Sakura almost a week and a half of playing with Sasuke and his big brother after school to realize that while she was observing him, _he_ was observing her. The first time she thought back on her encounters with him, she was laying in the grass with Naruto and trying to decide what to draw. And as her thoughts wandered, she started noticing things.

Like the way he watched her when she shouldn't have noticed. Or the questions he asked her about the medical ninjutsu that she'd learned so far. And the occasional statement he made that drew her into a conversation when he was showing all the children some simply shuriken tricks. Even his simple requests for her opinions on inconsequential things!

He was so subtle about it, too, because when he asked her questions, he spoke to Naruto and Sasuke as well and found out what they thought. He had conversations, albeit short, with all three of them. Even Naruto couldn't help but talk more and more around him. Not to mention his talks with Jinya...

...who she belatedly realized was _also_ observing her more closely than before, not that she'd noticed, as happy as she was just to be around him. It was when she realized that Jin and Itachi were collaborating that she started to panic. _What if they think I'm an imposter? Is it Hokage-sama asking them to spy on me? Or Kakashi-sensei?_ She knew that her teacher should be leading ANBU at this point in time. _What have they figured out already? Oh no; what if I'm in a genjutsu at this very moment, being interrogated?!_

It was only _after_ three successive attempts to dispel a genjutsu that wasn't there that her innner self spoke up. _**Don't you think that **_**your own brother**_** would realize it if we were an imposter?**_ Her alter ego spoke dryly, appearing in the grass across from her with an expression to match. _**They probably just think we're a prodigy or something. They usually discover this stuff around five and six years old, right? Stop over-reacting and think up a story for when they eventually corner us.**_

Sakura calmed down, and briefly closed her eyes, almost overwhelmed with relief as her panic receded and her logical mind took over again. _Yeah... You're right. Jinya _has_ been giving us more advanced scrolls recently, hasn't he? And..._ She racked her thoughts. _And the training! Before, he only gave me Academy training weapons and showed me the easiest exercises. But recently..._

_**He's been escalating it. Exactly. They're looking to see just how smart you are. But you were so **_**shy**_** and **_**quiet**_** before you met Naruto-kun and Sasuke-kun, weren't you? **_Inner Sakura asked with a sly expression. _**You would've just **_**hated**_** to inconvenience niisan by asking for more and more books. And you would **_**hate**_** to worry okaa-san and otou-san with all your strange questions about everything and wanting to figure out all these things that **_**normal**_** little girls don't worry about...**_

Sakura didn't notice the smile growing on her face as she finally started drawing, but Naruto did. The whiskered boy briefly debated on whether or not he should ask why she just looked like she won a prize, but he decided not to. _Girls are weird,_ he thought.

* * *

"Oh, I almost forgot. This will be the last time we meet until next year, Itachi-san," Jinya spoke.

Itachi looked up from his yakitori and raised a brow, silently asking for an explanation. He'd stopped being surprised when Jinya said something out of nowhere; it seemed, to him, that the other boy tended to just think and think and think until he found something that he should probably say instead of keeping locked up in his head, with no regards for whatever silence or prior conversation there might be.

"My family will be leaving to Wave in two days for a big family reunion. We'll be a little bit early, compared to some others, but okaa-san doesn't want to deal with any snow that might fall if we leave later on. Sakura-chan and otou-san both catch colds pretty easily."

"Ah. I see," he replied.

Jin smiled at the other boy. "I've gotten so used to having someone to eat with during the breaks between training and missions; it'll be a bit odd not to stop at a restaurant in the middle of the day. Not that I can complain, of course; since it's a family reunion, all us children are bound to get a little cash from all our aunts and uncles on New Years day!" He eyed Itachi. "And I'm sure you'll be getting them too. Maybe you'll start paying for your own food."

Itachi shrugged and tried not to smirk. "I don't force you to offer to treat."

Huffing, but not really irritated, the white haired boy went back to his food. They didn't say anything, and most probably, those were the last words that would be spoken between them until the next year. Itachi wasn't particularly talkative and Jinya didn't mind the silence. But he still felt, somehow, like he should be saying more.

It was just a feeling, but he thought something big would be happening soon. Hopefully nothing bad...

* * *

So... Next chapter is the reunion, or at least the beginning of it. **Last chance to guess at the kekkei genkai, people!** Lol, oh well.


	10. S u r p r i s e S u r p r i s e

Alright, here's the beginning of the Reunion chapters that people have been anticipating. Nobody won on the kekkei genkai, and like I said before, I never expected anyone to. But now you get to find out! How exciting.

At last count, the **kekkei genkai** is definitely **not**:** Hyouton (Ice), Inner Sakura, Special Chakra, Suiton Mastery, Using Opponents Fire, Fire Immunity, **or** Healing/Necromancy-ish Water stuff **(this one was definitely the most unique/interesting suggestion, I think.)

Oh yeah, I don't have a Beta reader, so **if you find any stupid spelling/grammar mistakes or missing words, tell me please!**

And apparently people don't hate Jinya's character (but if you do, tell me why!), so yay. On with the chapter.

The **really freaking long** chapter.

* * *

Sakura could remember her first C-rank mission with the same vague sort of memories one might have of their early childhood while in their late teens; a mix of brief flashes of the most important parts, blurry faces and muddled words that leave a long-lasting impact on you, even if you can't recall exactly what was said.

She knew that it was her first mission out of the village, and that their client had been Tazuna, an irritating old drunk who dreamed of dragging Nami no Kuni out of poverty. There were three prominent battles in her mind: a short conflict with two chuunin level nin, their first encounter with Zabuza, and finally, the battle on the bridge where she faced the death of a comrade for the first time, even if it later turned out to be false. Looking back, it was also the first time she encountered the sinister chakra of the Kyuubi, even though she hadn't realized it at the time.

Now, seven years too early, she was traveling to Nami once again and it couldn't be more different. Upon leaving Konoha, Sakura spent a long two days feeling far more hyper than she was used to, asking questions every other minute and running literal circles around her family. Her father Daisuke seemed to get dizzy just from watching her, and kept his gaze focused ahead while her mother kept up a steady stream of light-hearted chatter and comments about how nice it would be to see her family again.

Jinya, the only person in the group with the energy to match her, if only from his shinobi training, had the pleasure of catching her every time she tripped over her own feet while walking backwards, answering as many of her questions as he could before she asked another one, and eventually slinging her onto his shoulders once she finally tired herself out.

The rosette wasn't quite sure when it happened, but she ended up folding her arms on top of his head and falling asleep, because when she woke up, they were in Otafuku Gai and Jinya was complaining to their parents about all the drool in his hair, which he didn't notice until he pulled her off his neck and realized her tiny arms were covered in shiny patches of saliva.

She spared a few minutes to apologizing and feeling embarrassed, but mostly, Sakura was excited. That night, she didn't even manage to sleep, and instead spent hours staring out of the window and speculating with her inner self's transparent image about what her aunts and uncles and cousins and great aunts might be like, and what they would learn, and what their family's special abilities might be, seeing as her mother and Jinya were conspiring to hold the knowledge over her head until they got there.

Needless to say, the next morning, she slept until noon. Luckily, her parents had paid for a caravan to transport them to the border of Hi no Kuni, and she was small enough to fit on a bed roll in the very back of the wagon. Sleeping, however, just refilled her seemingly boundless stores of energy, something all small children inexplicably seemed to have.

Of course, Jinya was prepared for distracting her this time. The three days of travel between Otafuku Gai and Hi no Kuni's border near Nami were spent giving Nadeshiko several near heart-attacks as he taught her how to tree hop, and when the caravan stopped for breaks, the art of climbing trees with high branches much the way a monkey would.

When they _finally_ reached the port with the boats that would take them to the island, Nadeshiko actively refrained from looking at her children as Jinya held his sister's hands and let her stand on his feet while he half walked, half skipped across the water next to the boat. Daisuke came out of his increasingly surly mood just enough to amuse himself with scaring her, repeatedly, by yelling out things like 'Jinya, no!' and 'You almost dropped her in!'

By the time they reached the actual port, Nadeshiko looked pale as death against her red curls, and as they stepped onto land, her legs were shaky. Sakura almost worried that she might faint, and Daisuke was clearly prepared for such a thing as well, as he kept a hand at her elbow and an arm around her waist as they gathered their bags.

Unsurprisingly, nobody was expecting it when her mother did a complete about face, lunging toward a random woman in the small crowd at the port and squealing out, "Imouto-chan!"

From her spot on Jinya's neck, Sakura curiously took in the two hugging women, who were speaking to each other so quickly that she could barely make out what they were saying. It didn't take long for her to spot the resemblance between the two. Her mother's imouto had the same dark red curtain of hair as Nadeshiko, but it fell to her shoulders completely straight, with several lighter brown strands strewn throughout it. They had the same mint green eyes, and even the same gentle although catlike features.

If it weren't for the way the younger woman's body language, tight clothing and weapons holsters absolutely screamed _shinobi!_, one might've believed they were twins.

"Ah! Look at you, Jinya-kun, you've gotten so _big_! You were just a baby the last time I saw you!" The still unnamed woman exclaimed, rushing over to pinch Jinya's cheeks before reaching forward and scooping Sakura against her ample bosom. "Oneechan, she's so cute!" There was a brief pause, and a bemused expression overtook the woman's face. "But somehow, when you said Sakura-chan had pink hair, I thought you meant strawberry blonde..."

Nadeshiko laughed, all the color now returned to her features. "You should know I always say it like I mean it, Saeko-chan!"

Saeko smiled, then abruptly turned and landed Daisuke, who'd slowly been inching away, with a death glare. "I bet little Sakura-chan would've had red hair like the other Karibi women if you had married a nice boy from Nami instead of Shiro over here..."

Sighing, Nadeshiko retrieved her wide-eyed daughter from her imouto and settled the girl on her hip. "Do you have to be so mean to him every time you see him, Saeko-chan? It was hard enough to convince Daisuke-kun this reunion was a good idea."

"As if his opinion matters! Hmph!" Once again, Saeko did a one-eighty, leaning in to pinch Sakura's cheeks. "But he did give out some good genes, didn't he? They're so cute!"

"Imouto!"

* * *

Three days had passed since her family's arrival in Nami, and Sakura was wondering just how everyone was going to fit. She was trying to compute things based on what she was used to in Konoha. The Hyuuga clan had around seventy members, and they were placed in a compound. The Uchiha clan had close to one hundred and fifty members, and they had their own district in the village.

The Karibi family had a house. A _really_ _big_ house, sure... But it was still a house. So far, more than fifty of her family members hailing from places as close as Mizu no Kuni and as far away as Kaze no Kuni had arrived, and they were all _early_, considering that the reunion was actually supposed to begin somewhere in the next day. Even though she'd been looking forward to seeing her grandmother, Ruriko, she'd only gotten a quick kiss and hug from the woman before the matriarch was swept into the ever-constant rush yet again.

After she and her brother were dragged to a room on the bottom floor of the four-story structure for pictures, Sakura and Jinya were informed that their grandmother, mother, and aunts were trying to do something that seemed impossible: they were creating a Family Register, and considering a gigantic family tree for the main dining room as well. Jinya seemed amused by the thought, and Sakura could understand why. Almost as soon as one family got settled in, another person showed up, usually with their spouse and anywhere from one to six children, not counting any buns in the oven, of which there seemed to be a great many.

It was easy to get lost in the crowds of people and children rushing around everywhere; it seemed like everybody was a redhead to some degree. Sakura felt like she'd seen every type of redhead in the world, from strawberry blonde, to orange, to auburn, to what _she_ would call purple (although it was supposedly maroon), to a few shades of red so dark that they might've been black if not for the light making highlights show up.

There were four different sets of twins, and one set of triplets, and it was fairly impossible to tell any of them apart if they wore the same clothes, because in addition to red hair being prevalent everywhere, it seemed like practically everyone had eyes in some shade or variation of the color green. Sakura had one cousin, whose name she forgot, that she could've sworn was Gaara's female twin (well, with eyebrows.) In fact, she was half-expecting to see Gaara himself meandering through the crowd, because he would certainly fit right in. Sakura and Jinya were some of the few children with different hair colors (_she couldn't count the number of times she'd heard "Wow, Nadeshiko, I didn't think you meant her hair was really _pink_ when you said that!")_, and it was probably the only times in their lives that they were glad to stand out so badly. It really was easy to get lost in the crowd.

"I hadn't expected there to be so many of us," she remembered Jin commenting to one of their third or fourth cousins, Ayane, from Yoarashi Gaiku, in Mizu no Kuni. "Okaasan always says that she has three siblings. She never told us that Ruriko-obaasan was the youngest of _six_."

Although looking at them, it was indisputable that they were all of the same blood, the Karibi family was made up of a great many smaller ones. There were the Haruno based in Konoha, the Sansai branch from Tea Country, and the Heisui from River Country. The Yoen, Moeru and Jizen branches of the family all lived on different islands between Mizu and Nami. The Touken and Kanchi parts of the family apparently lived on one of the border towns between Hi no Kuni and River Country. And those were only the families that Sakura could remember off the bat.

With all of these different people from different countries together, it was understandably _loud_ in the house at all times of day and night. There was always someone arriving, and people being moved to different rooms in an attempt to make more space, and the kitchen was never empty with so many people working at the same time yet getting their food from the same place. Women continuously fought over the bathrooms while men gave up early and went into the forests. It wasn't uncommon for there to be simultaneous arguments and laughter going on, especially in the group of pregnant Karibi women that was always being herded from one space to another because they couldn't do any work yet wouldn't stay separated either and pretty much created a roadblock wherever they were.

It was ridiculously overwhelming, and that was _without_ the surprises that Sakura would run into the next day.

* * *

At four in the morning on the day the reunion was supposed to begin, Karibi-Moeru Tsukino had a great idea, which she wasted no time in presenting to her mother Naomi, who rushed to share it with her cousin Karibi-Sansai Amaya, who discussed it with her husband Daisuke (_so far, they'd counted four Daisuke's in the gathering, each married into the family from a different country_), who suggested that she take it to Karibi Saeko, who immediately carried the message over to Nadeshiko, who was the only one able to consistently find Ruriko.

What started off as the idea to "take all the children out to the port so we can clean easier" somehow became "turn the big dining room into a giant sleepover for all the kids so we have more rooms!"

Karibi Ruriko, an energetic auburn-haired fifty-nine year old, heartily approved of this. "_SHANNARO! I KNEW WE'D FIGURE IT OUT SOMEHOW!_" echoed through the entire building, followed by, "_EVERYBODY CLEAR OUT THE BIG DINING ROOM!_" Hearing the order, announced much like every other order had been announced for the last four days, everyone moshed towards the dining room.

They sent half of the family away so there would be space for people to move through the doors. Then they shooed off all the children, so that there would be space for people to move around in the room and carry everything out to the lawn, which was the unofficial place to dump things until they found a new home somewhere else in the house.

Once that was done, a team of gossiping female teens and the unfortunate, sleepy Jinya were drafted to sweep and mop the floor, followed by a massive movement by all the able-bodied women to begin carrying blankets, pillows, and knocked out children into the room, where all the toddlers were situated in the center of the room, the slightly older children in one corner, the almost-teens in another corner, the youngest teens in the third corner, and the oldest who weren't quite old enough to stay in a nice, private room in the last corner.

The house immediately became three times louder than it was before as children wandered from their spots to find older siblings, younger siblings, cousins, or just plain began to cry because they'd been awakened at six o'clock in the morning in a completely different place from where they initially went to sleep.

Sakura bolted. It would've been _nice_ to find Jinya, but it was obviously much better for her personal health to get out of that room and into fresh air. Standing a little over three and a half feet tall, it took quite a bit of effort to make it through the legs of everyone carrying things either from the lawn, into the house, or from the house and onto the lawn. _Almost free!_ She thought, spying the door that led out to the lake in back of the house.

Of course, as soon as she darted forward to get out, her path was blocked by a group gossiping women carrying bunches of folding chairs towards the lawn. As she pressed herself against the wall and waited impatiently for them to pass, she couldn't help but pick up on the conversation going on between the many women.

"...hid himself in the corner of the small storage room again. Cho tried to get him out and into the room with the other children, but I don't think he understood a word she was saying to him."

"Poor Genji, his wife died giving birth to him, the baby took after her looks completely too, not an ounce of red in him. It's got to hurt, having a child that looks just like your wife but doesn't even speak like a normal child should. I don't know if I'd be so strong, if my Kikyo acted so strangely..." The woman trailed off with a cough.

"Himeko! You shouldn't be so mean, he's just a baby! Maybe he's a late bloomer. He could just be shy."

"You've always been so optimistic. He's older than Chizuru! If he hasn't started acting normal by now, then he's only going to get more frustrating as he ages."

Two men carrying a large table between them came by, and there was instantly a chorus of 'shh!' and 'hush!' and 'oh, what lovely weather we're having' as the women tried to pretend they hadn't been talking about the previous topic. The line picked up and soon disappeared, followed by the table, leaving Sakura a free path to make her way out of the house. But she didn't go. Now, she was curious.

_**Don't you know curiosity killed the cat? **_Inner Sakura asked rhetorically even as Sakura turned away from the door and began heading towards the front of the house, where she was fairly sure the 'small storage room' was located.

_And satisfaction brought it back. Duh._ A curious Sakura was a determined one, and nothing was going to stop the pink haired girl from investigating this mysterious cousin of hers. _I wonder who he is? I can't remember anyone that didn't look like a Karibi at all..._

_**Who knows? Ah! I think it was the room before this one, don't go in here, isn't this one full of pregnant ladies?**_ Inner Sakura all but yelled.

Sakura snapped her hands away from the doorknob as if it were on fire, and took a few steps back for good measure, shivering. _Thank goodness, I almost forgot that,_ she thought, sidling over to another door, which she'd passed the first time. This time, she didn't hesitate in going in.

_**Women hyped up on maternal-ness are... Scary...**_ Inner Sakura trailed off, a baffled expression over taking her face.

_Is that... Sai?_

Sitting in the furthest corner of the sunlit room, underneath a table piled high with boxes and folded towels, a pale boy with the darkest colored hair she'd seen since getting to Nami was absently smearing his paint-covered fingers over a plain scroll. His eyes were blacker than charcoal, focused on creating a picture that she couldn't see, and his facial expression was absolutely blank.

At first, Sakura thought she was mistaken, because she _had_ to be mistaken, because it was just _impossible_. But she knew those eyebrows, and that rounded face, and most certainly those thin lips, which she remembered having to smack her hands over more than once to keep Team Yamato out of serious trouble. That porcelain expression and those loose shoulders could never fool her.

This was _Sai_, the only teammate she'd been positive there was no way for her to meet if she changed the timeline. Yet she'd somehow done the exact _opposite_. This was another one of her boys... Here... In front of her... Not in Root...

Not in Root...

Even as Sakura cautiously crept forward to sit in front of him and look at the drawing, the happy, naive six year old personality was completely subdued. Her thoughts were all coming from the twenty-two year old Sakura, the logic user, the one who participated in the beginning of the Fourth Great Shinobi War and lived through all the skirmishes leading up to it to tell the tale.

"Hello...?" She questioned quietly.

_If Sai is from the Karibi, how did Danzo get his hands on him?_

The boy looked up at her, face indifferent, and gave a small wave with a chubby hand that had a different color on each finger.

_**If Danzo had Sai, maybe he had **_**other**_** Karibi children. Shishou never could figure out how he'd managed to swell his forces so large. There aren't that many orphans in Konoha.**_

"My name is Haruno Sakura. I'm six and I'm from Konohagakure no Sato, in Hi no Kuni. Who are you?" It was a sunrise. Possibly the most sophisticated sunrise she'd ever seen from a six year old. Sai was finger painting the sunrise that was shining into the window of the storage room, and it looked more like he'd just snapped a photo of it.

_...The original reunion. The reunion where most of the family was decimated._ For some reason, Sakura had always attributed the original to a natural disaster, like a tsunami or a hurricane. They were a painfully typical kind of tragedy for island nations. Why would she ever have suspected genocide? _Then... What if...?_

The boy opened his mouth, as if to speak, then shut it again, looking at her. He looked back to his drawing, and then his colorful fingers, and then he glanced around the room. Finally, he looked at her once more, and spoke slowly, "Tou-ken Sai-chi. I am..." He glanced down at his fingers once again, then looked up, and continued, "Six. From... O-tou-san says... Rindou no Sato. Iori-san says... The stupid people place. Iori-san says..." He broke off again, glanced at his fingers, and then looked at his drawing. "I'm dumb and should... Sit in a corner and draw. And be quiet. Or some-thing."

_**The reunion is the first time the whole family has been together in ages. If Danzo got Sai... And maybe got other Karibi children... And the whole family was somehow destroyed...**_

"So... You're only here because you're doing what Iori-san says?" 'Iori-san' wasn't a nice person, whoever she was. But had Sai really been so awkward even as a child? For some reason, she'd attributed his social interactions to his Root training. Then again, Fuu and Torune hadn't seemed anything like him.

_We'll look. And if we find anything that says we're right... We'll find __**him**__ and we'll __**kill him**__._

Sai looked up from his drawing again, because she wasn't laughing, like the other children had laughed when he got there yesterday. "Hai." He looked at his fingers, specifically his pinky, and looked back up at her. "Your hair is pink. Like..." After fishing for words for a second, he raised his hand, and showed her the little finger that was as magenta as her eyebrows. "That."

In a strange, calm sort of mindset that was usually resolved for the most intense healing operations and the most stressful battles, Sakura let her mind toss her new speculations around and around, and smiled widely at him. "Hai! Like..." She looked at the drawing, and pointed at one of the colors in the clouds at the top. "Like the pink in your sunrise. It's pretty. I like it."

"A-ri-ga-to," Sai (_Saichi, huh?_) replied. He touched her hair, staring at it with the same intensity that he'd given his painting before, and Sakura didn't have the heart to feel angry at him for smearing multicolored paint in her strands. Then he looked back at her face. "You don't laugh."

"Don't say what Iori-san says. Then nobody will laugh." Sakura paused. "And you don't have to sit in a corner and draw and be quiet. You can come outside with me, and talk, okay?" She was going to find Jinya, and tell him about her new friend Sai. And then she was going to unleash him on Iori-san, whoever that was. _Sakura_ couldn't do anything, but her brother definitely would.

"Oh... Okay."

"Let's go get breakfast, okay Sai?" Decidedly, she didn't like 'Saichi.' Because to her, he was _Sai_. That was what she'd call him.

"Hai."

And that was how Sakura made her first friend during the reunion. She resolved to spend the next few weeks treating him exactly as she'd treat any other one of her friends.

Thoughts of Danzo continued to spin through her mind.

* * *

"I lost her. I _lost_ her. I can't believe I lost her. Oh kami-sama, I lost her..." Jinya was panicking. "I _saw_ her, I know I saw her, I was there when okaasan put her down, oh kami-sama how did I _lose_ her?"

"Lose who?" Pipped a tall boy with hair more orange than red and emerald eyes, who'd been watching Jinya stalk back and forth in the kids room for the past three minutes. His name was Daisuke (unofficially the fifth, from the Sansai branch in Cha no Kuni. It really was a common name.)

Startled, Jinya automatically reached for his kunai holster, only to remember that nobody was allowed to carry their weapons or hitai-ate inside the house, to slightly lower the amount of conflicts going on. "Uh. Um. Have you seen a little girl about _this high_," he gestured to his waist with his hands, "And pink hair? And no, not strawberry blonde or really light red. Magenta."

Daisuke the fifth blinked. "...Seriously? I thought they were _kidding_ when they said there was a girl with pink hair here!" He exclaimed.

Having deduced from the statement that Daisuke the fifth had definitely _not_ seen his imouto, Jinya returned to panicking, but decided to ask the people in the halls outside if they'd seen her. _Someone_ had to have seen her.

_"BREAKFAST TIME EVERYBODY! OUT TO THE LAWN, THERE'S FOOD OUTSIDE! GO BEFORE IT'S GONE!_" There was a brief pause, before the bellowing continued, "_AND MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO CRICKETS IN YOUR RICE!_"

Any plans Jinya had to search out his imouto were crushed, much the same way he almost was as a veritable stampede of redheads with a few sprinkles of brunettes and some blondes jumped up and ran out of the room. _Oh kami-sama, what if Sakura-hime was in the hall? What if they ran over her! Please don't be crushed, please don't be crushed, please don't be crushed... Ah! Pink hair!_ "Gah, Sakura-hime, wait!"

His yell had the unfortunate effect of halting three different girls in addition to his baby sister, who was looking up at him innocently from the stairs she stood on with a black-haired boy about the same age. The stampede stumbled and stuttered to a halt, then started moving again, probably faster than before as adults scooped up children and continued moving along so they could get food as well.

After a relatively short rush, the house was finally _empty_, and there seemed to be a loud white noise taking over the space where so many voices had been seconds previously. Not that Jin cared. As soon as there was space to move, he'd run over to check Sakura for any wounds or dirt, and besides finding paint in her hair and all over the hand the boy was holding, she seemed just fine, if deep in thought.

Feeling relief as the weight disappeared off his chest, Jin stepped back and smiled. "I was worried when I couldn't find you, hime. But I suppose I shouldn't have, considering everybody around here is family... Ah. Who's your friend?" _I didn't know our family came in those colors,_ he thought with a bit of amusement, noticing that the boy stood out possibly more than he and Sakura did, since he didn't even have green eyes.

The boy looked down, and Sakura nudged him, whispering, "Niisan is nice, he's not gonna laugh. Just don't say whatever Iori-san said, okay?" At this point, Sakura gave her big brother a _look_.

The boy nodded and looked up, then slowly and carefully introduced himself, "My name is Tou-ken Sai-chi. I am six. I am from Rindou no Sato in Hi no Kuni."

"Nice to meet you, Saichi-kun. My name is Haruno Jinya. I'm eleven, and I'm from Konohagakure no Sato in Hi no Kuni," Jinya replied with his own introduction, a little confused about the way he spoke but mostly unbothered. Then, with a silent, urging look from his imouto on him, he asked, "Ano... What is it that Iori-san had you saying before?" When the boy looked down, he hurried to continue, "I promise I won't laugh. I just want to know."

"Oh... Hai." But Sai didn't look up this time as he repeated the introduction, the way Sakura had first heard it. "...But Ha-ru-no Sa-ku-ra says that if I don't say what Iori-san says, no-bo-dy will laugh."

"Yup, Sakura-chan is right," Jinya replied, smiling at the boy even though he wanted to frown. "Say, can you tell me about Iori-san so I can find her? I think she made a mistake and you should always help somebody fix their mistakes."

"Iori-san is named Sa-ka-mo-to Iori from Shimo no Kuni. She is twelve years old. She is my cousin. Her hair is..." He raised his free hand, the one that wasn't clutching at Sakura's, and showed Jin his pointer finger, which was covered in purple. "This color. But darker."

"Alright then. You and Sakura-chan can eat together while I find her and give her some... Help, okay?" He smiled brightly, then grabbed Sakura's other hand and began leading them outside. "Hopefully, there's still food left for us."

Jinya did as he said and, after getting a plate of food for both Sakura and Sai, disappeared to find the one called Iori-san. Sakura used this time to talk to Sai, which was just as strange an experience then as it would've been in the future. Sai talked slowly, like he was thinking about what he should say a single word at a time, and always broke down long words into multiple syllables. He also used simple sentences, just enough to get his point across without being misunderstood. Perhaps the most familiar attribute of conversation with him was the blunt way he pointed things out or asked questions, never considering that some of the things he said might be offensive.

Sakura found him adorably awkward, although it was probably because she had the information and experience to know that with effort, he _would_ eventually improve. And it wasn't really a hassle to talk to him, even if she did have to explain a few things that most kids already knew about. She found herself viewing him the same way she might see a younger brother, and treating him accordingly.

She still found herself a bit disbelieving that someway, somehow, she was related to _Sai_ of all people. But that turned out to be only the first in a line of surprises that day.

* * *

It was when the afternoon came and, supposedly, everyone had _finally_ arrived and been settled into the house, that Sakura finally caught wind of what she'd been eagerly anticipating for over a month now. It was time to introduce all the children and new-shinobi of the clan to the kekkei genkai.

To that end, the dining room had been cleared yet again, this time by rolling up all the covers and pillows and pushing them against the wall, leaving a majority of the space for gathering all the children to sit in rows, all facing the front of the room. It was there that Karibi Ruriko stood, chattering happily to two of her sisters and more than a few of her nieces and nephews about "how absolute _overjoyed!_" she was to see so many of the younger generation all in one place.

"Hello, all my cute little Karibi-ko!" Ruriko exclaimed, stepping up with wide smile on her face and instantly quieting the hum of talking that had previously filled the room. "I hope all of you have gotten to know your cousins and aunts from different countries! It's so nice to see all of us together! I bet you're all excited to start learning cool techniques, ne?"

A chorus of 'hai,' 'so can we start now?' and 'yeah!'s rang out as everybody tried to answer at once.

"Well... First you have to learn a bit of history!" The older woman laughed as all the approvals changed to 'boo's. "Hey, history is important, and it's not like it will kill you to wait a few more minutes! Besides, aren't you curious about how all of us ended up so far apart from each other? Some of you are from Cha no Kuni, others are from Hi no Kuni, there are lots of you from Mizu, and who knows all the other places. We're like an international incident waiting to happen," she joked. The words went over the heads of most of the youngest in the crowd, but others laughed.

"For lots of families, having so many people in different places really would be a problem," Ruriko continued, quieting the laughter. "What if you're from Suna and your cousin is from Iwa, and a border conflict or a war starts? Which family is on the 'right' side of the conflict? What if you have to fight each other? Our situation can get really sticky, really fast. And a lot of times it has. But what we all need to remember is that before any allegiance to a country, every last one of us is a Karibi at heart. We were together before our first village existed, we stayed together even when Uzushiogakure fell, and now, when we all live in different places, nothing will stop us from coming and learning and loving together..."

Ruriko kept talking, but she'd lost Sakura at 'Uzushiogakure.' She _knew_ that name. That was where Naruto's mother was from; Hidden Whirlpool village, which had been almost completely obliterated during the Third Great Shinobi War as the bigger villages began to realize exactly how skilled its' members were and feared that it might be the rise of a new Great Village. She'd known that her mother's family separated early on in that war, but she'd never considered _why_ they all scattered to the four winds. And quite suddenly, it made sense.

But at the same time that it made sense, it opened up a whole new can of worms that Sakura didn't even want to _contemplate_...

"...But enough with the history!" Abruptly, Ruriko gained Sakura's attention again as she began to practically vibrate with an amount of energy that shouldn't be found in someone almost sixty years old. "Standing at the back wall are all your older siblings, cousins, and aunts who have already learned as much as they could about the Karibi, our roots, and our bloodline. It's time for all of you to learn as well. When they come around to you, you'll all be broken into groups, and that is where you'll begin your _real_ introduction to our family."

_**Dammit! She **_**still**_** hasn't told us what the hell it is! I WANNA KNOW!**_ Inner Sakura raged, displaying all the disbelief and irritation that Sakura couldn't express herself. _**Come ON already! SHANNARO!**_

Feeling a tap on her shoulder, Sakura looked up into a _very freaking familiar_ face. _No way. No way in Hell_, the pink haired girl thought, very close to gaping as she looked at the woman claiming her for the group. _Not possible. Completely and utterly not. Possible. At. All._

_**...Except that apparently, it is.**_

"Ne, you're Nadeshiko-obasan's daughter, right? Have to be, if you're so cute with hair that color!" The redheaded woman giggled, locking green eyes on Sakura's own. "Who's your little friend? Genji-ossan's son, maybe?"

"H-his name is Sai," Sakura stumbled to introduce.

"Well, nice to meet you, Sakura-chan and Sai-kun! If you'll come with me, I'll take you outside and start showing you all you need to know about Yōton Lava Release and Futton Boil Release. Oh, and by the way, I'm your big cousin Terumī Mei! You can call me Mei-chan!"

Sakura nodded dumbly and tugged Sai along as Mei led them outside. _Of all the people to meet and all the bloodlines in the countries... We have the future Godaime Mizukage to learn from?_

* * *

A/N: FFFFFFUUU- that was long. I couldn't find an end to the chapter, ye gods. But yes... Lava and Boil release. It'll be explained, mostly, next chapter, but feel free to look it up on Google! xD I actually got the whole idea because I noticed that Sakura and Terumī Mei had eyes the same color. It just spun out of control after chapter five. Whattaya think?


	11. B e n d A n d B r e a k

Alright, first things first, props to **silly08** for correcting me last chapter about Mei being the Godaime, not the Yondaime. My bad, but now it's changed, so yay.

As always, **please point out any stupid grammar/spelling mistakes or missing words!**

I'm happy to see that all of you enjoyed the last chapter and were fairly surprised, so another yay. And now, for the second Reunion chapter. Interesting things are on the way.

* * *

At three in the morning, Konoha was dark, silent and peaceful. It was one of the rare nights when no shinobi were returning from important missions in the very middle of the night, so the rooftops were empty of all but the ANBU patrol group, which remained unseen as its' members did their rounds. The sky was cloudless, and the moon provided a view of Konoha that would make any watchers wish to protect such a place.

From the balcony of his home, Danzo looked over the village with the air of someone reminiscing on the times of their youth. Anyone who didn't know the man personally could've mistaken him for a simple man, declining in his old age and trying to enjoy the changing world at its' most peaceful. However, his benign appearance belied his true intentions.

Danzo was waiting.

Three days ago, the event he'd been anticipating for nearly two months had finally commenced. His Root members were already stationed in Nami by the time the last stragglers had arrived, and since that time, he had received several updates on a four hour basis. Although he'd had some idea of exactly how large the Karibi clan was, even after being cut down during Uzushiogakure's destruction, the numbers he'd been sent were staggering. There were more Karibi members than Hyuuga, and almost half of the eighty-six were children and teens, not to mention expectant mothers.

The sheer possibilities presented in those numbers almost made him shiver. His current forces were by no means _small_, especially for an organization operating out of the shadows, but forty or so young, malleable children with special abilities were a boon. Even better was the chance to have some of these children from the moment they would be birthed into the world, to be raised and molded solely by he and his Ne with no outside influences. He was one step closer to creating the _perfect_ soldiers. It was almost a given that some of them would fail to survive the training, but with so many, there would be no huge loss for him.

When he received the report stating that all the children were kept in one place, he almost laughed at the way things were playing into his hands. _You've always managed to slip my hands before, Ruriko, _he thought with malicious glee, _but there is no saving your family now! Twice, you've avoided death... But they always say the third time is the charm. You've been a thorn in my side for far too long..._

A cloud of smoke silently appeared next to him, and the grim smile on Danzo's face widened. He took the rolled up scroll from the Stork summon with no words, and quickly read the report, left uncoded since it was being delivered securely.

All the troops were in place and the plans were cemented. His Ne was ready to move. Turning to the back of the same paper, Danzo gave his own affirmative, and sent it off with the summon.

_The operation will commence at 2300 hours._

* * *

On the third day of the reunion, six days since her family had arrived and two days after they first began teaching the children about their clan's kekkei genkai, Sakura woke up feeling such dread that she almost threw up on her bed roll. Managing to restrain the impulse, the pink haired girl curled up into a ball, forcing widened eyes to close again as she tried to calm herself down.

When she'd managed to slow her own breathing down to a normal pace, she sat up and scanned the room slowly. The waning moon reflected off her mint green eyes, giving her a catlike appearance, but nobody was awake to see it. _Why am I awake?_ Sakura wondered even as she crawled out of her blankets and began tip-toeing her way over the piles of other children on the floor surrounding her.

Even though she asked the question of herself, the rosette already knew the answer. Something bad was going to happen... She just didn't know _what_. Sakura was intimately familiar with her gut feelings, and even as a six year old, she had the memories of a decade of conflict swimming around in her head. She'd learned to trust this feeling a long, _long_ time ago.

Slipping out of the room and into the darkened halls, Sakura began making her way toward the kitchen, figuring she would get herself a cup of milk. Chances were she wouldn't finish the drink, but it would give her hands something to hold as she pondered what could go wrong and what she could do to stop it. _There's always something I can do,_ she thought, trying to encourage herself. _Even as a child... There's __**always**__ something..._

At the doorway to the kitchen, Sakura stopped, realizing that the light was on. She could hear low voices murmuring in serious tones, and without being cognizant of her actions, the girl pressed herself into a corner that couldn't be seen from the doorway and sent a trickle of chakra to her ears so she could hear what was going on.

Her mother was speaking. "...didn't know the boy's name at first. He's in a... Special position in our village." Nadeshiko's voice seemed to tremble slightly, and Sakura wondered who she was talking about. _Naruto?_ "Our leader takes many measures to protect him. Most people in the village knew he existed, but he was never taken into the public until this past year or so, when he began schooling. Sakura-chan has class with him... And a few months ago, she was telling me about her new friend, and you can imagine my surprise when I heard the name Uzumaki."

There was a pause, and some shuffling, as if people were nodding in agreement or moving closer.

This time, it was her grandmother speaking, in thoughtful tones. "You say he is an orphan, ne? If the name was chosen for him by your leader, it may be a coincidence. On the other hand... Konoha and Uzu were close, when it still stood. Your leader must know the names of the clans that resided there. He wouldn't use Uzumaki, the name of our former Daimyo, so freely. Still... There is no real proof."

There was silence for about a minute, before Nadeshiko spoke up, hesitantly. "There is... _Some_ proof. Something that only the Uzumaki have... _Held_, ever. And only in Konoha."

Sakura stifled a gasp. _Okaasan can't be telling obaasan about the Kyuubi?_

"You can't mean..." Ruriko's voice lowered even more, so much that Sakura could barely hear it, even with chakra enhancing her ears. "There was a third Uzumaki jinchuuriki?"

There was a series of muffled gasps around the table, and three more voices seemed to break in at the same time, 'but how could they have the sealing knowledge for that?', 'is he one of Mito-sama's descendants?', and 'is he stable?' melded together into a garble of words.

The thump of a fist lightly hitting the table quieted the room once more, and Nadeshiko spoke slowly, "I can neither confirm nor deny your beliefs." But everybody knew that was essentially a firm 'yes.'

"A surviving Uzumaki..." This voice sounded a bit shocked; she thought it was her aunt Saeko. "It's true then. I had thought they were all lost, after Uzu's destruction."

"I'm not sure the boy knows his heritage, or even his burden. If I had to guess... I would say that he didn't. That _nobody_ does, except perhaps the Hokage and those in his confidence."

"The child needs to know," Ruriko said firmly. Her voice brooked no arguments. "There are still hidden places, left untouched, in Uzu. With his blood, he could unlock the seals and learn his birthright and his history."

"Is it really a good idea to bring that kind of knowledge into the world again?" Nadeshiko spoke up softly. "I still remember little things from before the village was destroyed. The Uzumaki were awe-inspiring protectors of our village... But that same awe came hand in hand with fear. If anyone were to guess that the boy had such abilities as well... How could I help lay such a burden on a child that's already protecting us all?"

"And if it was Sakura?" Saeko interrupted.

"What?"

"If it was Sakura," her aunt continued, voice determined, "Would you still wish to keep her abilities from her, knowing it could protect her one day? Or if Jinya was the orphan, the child with no idea as to his roots, would you want someone to hide away his history? Even if it might bring strife to his life, would you allow them to take away his _birthright_?"

Nadeshiko's voice trembled. "I... No," and then, stronger, "No. Definitely not. But... What can we possibly do?"

A door opened down the hall, and Sakura jumped, hurriedly withdrawing her chakra from her ears and pressing herself further into the corner. _**Why does that always happen at the most inopportune time?**_ Inner Sakura raged while Sakura forced herself to look sleepy and make noisy footsteps as she wandered into the kitchen.

_At least we managed to find something out,_ Sakura thought, curling into her mother's arms as Nadeshiko scooped her up and carried her over to the refrigerator for a glass of milk. _Who would've known that there was anything left where Uzu used to stand? Naruto always wished for something of his family..._

Objectively, what she'd just learned was good news. The fact that she'd heard it at all was even better. But even as Sakura was shooed back to bed, paper cup full of milk in hand, it was hard to remain optimistic.

Even with good news, her dread had only increased since she first awakened.

* * *

"Alright, Sai-kun, show me Ram." Mei smiled when the black-haired boy clumsily moved his hands into the correct seal. "Great! Now, remember how you found that energy yesterday morning? I want you to find it again, and hold it there until I come back from helping Moeko-chan over there. I'll be right back!"

After watching the tall redhead jog of to another part of the lake where all the children were practicing, Sai looked down at his hands in the strange, complex position, and then looked over to Sakura, who had already made it past this stage two days ago. He was supposed to be gathering his chakra so that he could use it on the paper in his pocket and make it do something, but he didn't remember how he'd found the energy yesterday. His cousin had helped him.

Almost as if she sensed his struggle, Sakura stopped moving her hands through different seals and moved closer to him. "Do you want help finding it again, Sai?" The pink haired girl asked with a smile.

Sai nodded silently.

"Well, do you remember how we started doing it yesterday?" Sakura asked. She held a hand up to stop him before he could protest that he didn't remember. "Just think about it for a little while. Guess a little if you want. Okay?"

With a hesitant nod, he tried to think back to what he'd done. Sai didn't like thinking too hard about things, because people always tried to rush him or made fun of him for going slowly. _But Sakura is nice_, the boy reminded himself. So he thought, and after almost three minutes, he thought he had it. "Sa-ku-ra?"

She looked up from her hand seals again and gave him her full attention. "Hai? Do you remember now?"

"Yes-ter-day we... Closed our eyes and ignored the sounds... And tried to find the warmth." It was a statement, but it sounded a bit like a question. Sai _thought_ that was all they had done, but he was unsure. But Sakura's sudden smile reassured him.

"Yup! You got it!" She leaned in, as if to impart a secret, and told him in a not-so-quiet whisper: "If you do that while you hold the paper instead of holding the Ram seal, you can get to know what yours is faster!"

"Oh. Okay. A-ri-ga-to, Sa-ku-ra."

Watching as Sai took her tip, Sakura couldn't help but smile. It took him a bit of effort, but she knew that he would get it this time. Of course, the rosette already knew that his main affinity was water, just like she'd already known that her chakra affinities were water and earth. Everyone except her older brother had been fairly surprised when she picked up the exercises so quickly, but she _did _have an advantage over all the other children, at least for the moment.

She wasn't sure her 'genius' would last her when they got around to actually doing Yoton and Futton jutsu.

When Mei (_she still couldn't really believe that the Godaime Mizukage was her third cousin_) had taken them outside the first time, one of the first things she explained was that the Karibi kekkei genkai was based around fire. That had confused Sakura, because she definitely _didn't_ have an affinity for fire-nature chakra. But that was where the bloodline came in to play: while almost everyone in the family had water, earth, or both as chakra affinities, they had a special ability that allowed them to make their chakra act like fire-nature chakra and blend in with their actual affinities.

Yoton was actually a combination of earth and fire nature chakra which created lava, while Futton jutsu mixed fire and water nature chakra, which wasn't actually possible without a special ability because the two elements normally canceled each other out. To create lava, she would have to learn how to create dirt and rocks from her chakra, then superheat it. It was a similar process for Futton, which took creating water, then using fire-nature chakra to raise its' temperature and alter the pH levels to make it acidic.

Technically, if anyone had an affinity other than water or earth, the Karibi kekkei genkai would still allow them to use katon jutsu, since it changed their actual natures to fire for a short while. Theoretically, it was also possible to mix fire with other elemental affinities, but what did fire and lightning create? And wind would simply make normal fire techniques harder to control.

"Sa-ku-ra?"

Coming out of her thought, she looked at Sai again, and saw a slight furrow in his brows that was the only expression she'd ever seen on him yet, besides curiosity. "What is it, Sai?" She asked.

"It's wet." He held up the paper that was sagging over his fingers to show her.

At that precise moment, Mei popped up out of nowhere, squealing and startling both of them. "I'm so proud of you, Sai-kun! You got it! You have a water affinity just like Sakura-chan and I!" As she scooped the boy up and hugged him to her ample bosom, the redhead looked at Sakura with a smile. "By the way, your otousan is in the house with your oniisan, I think he has something to give you as well."

"Hai!"

As Sakura wandered into the house to begin the search for her father, which would be far easier than finding her mother because of his white hair, she wondered what he might have for her. _A present, maybe?_ She wondered. She couldn't imagine _why_ he would have a present for her, but there was no way that she'd turn one down.

After a few minutes, Jinya found her before she found them, and carried her on his shoulders back to their parents' room on the third floor, where their father had been spending most of his time in the past few days.

They entered just as Daisuke was stepping towards the door, and he gave them both a wan smile, looking a bit sickly. "There you are, Sakura-chan. I was just about to go searching for you." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet bag as Jin set her onto the floor. He pulled out a short gold chain with a cherry blossom shaped locket on the end. "This is for you, hime. I was going to wait until New Years', but it seems that I have to leave today and make a journey to Ta no Kuni because of a diplomatic incident."

Sakura pouted, and kept it from becoming a full frown as the feeling that had stayed in the back of her head since that morning came to her notice again. "Hai, otousan. When will you be coming home?"

Her father's smile looked strange as he replied, "You'll be back in Konoha the next time you see me, Sakura-chan."

"Oh, okay..."

With that, she and Jinya were shooed off, and they both returned to their respective groups for practicing out by the lake. As she was walking back towards Sai, however, Sakura examined the locket on her necklace and found something strange.

_Is that a seal?_

"Sakura-chan, there you are! Hurry up!" Mei called. "I think it's time for you to actually try the jutsu!"

Smiling, Sakura dropped the pendant back into her shirt and complied. She could always look at it later.

* * *

It was ten-thirty in the evening, and officially, it was bedtime for everyone under the age of sixteen. Unofficially, even though all of them had been herded into their rooms by aunts, uncles and older cousins, it was still full of noise, especially with music playing from a CD player in the corner, and the lights had yet to go off. A few of the very youngest children, barely older than toddlers, had been knocked out since earlier in the evening, and seemed completely undisturbed by the noise level in the room.

Sakura was curled up in Jinya's lap, looking but not really watching as he played a fast-paced game of Mahjong with five of their older cousins, including Daisuke the fifth (whose nickname had stuck after someone finally said it aloud.) Her eyes were stuck on the cards, but it was mostly an attempt not to look at her lap, where her shaking hands were gripping each other, trying to look like they were still.

She felt absolutely sick with some morbid kind of anticipation. The pink haired girl kept expecting to hear screaming start up somewhere in the rest of the house, to smell smoke or hear the sound of roaring flames overtaking an old wooden building. The day was over, and as the moon rose, her ability to pretend that everything was fine steadily lowered.

Feeling a twitch in her left foot, the same kind of twitch that signaled the beginning of her hand's nervous shaking, Sakura decided that she needed to get up and do _something._ It didn't matter what, so long as she wasn't sitting in one place and waiting and fearing and hoping she was just having a bad day.

Jinya looked away from the game briefly as Sakura began crawling out of his lap. "Hime?" He questioned. "Going to sleep now? PON!" The yell was quite random as he turned away and tossed down two cards to the groans of the others playing the game.

Sakura mustered up a tired looking smile, but shook her head. "I have to go to the bathroom. I'll come back when I'm done."

"Oh, hai. I'll save a space for you... _SANSHOKU DOUJUN! _Ha, I win again! Hand it over!"

There was a chorus of quiet curses as people began handing over their money. Shaking her head, Sakura meandered through the groups of different people, stepping over toys, blankets and other children on her way to the door. In the hall, she kept a look out for anyone that might try to send her back into the room, then walked at a slightly faster pace to reach the stairs to the upper floors. She'd long since realized that the first and second floor bathrooms were the busiest.

It was as she was washing her hands and absently splashing water over her face that she suddenly began to feel tired. _I should go to bed,_ Sakura thought, shutting the water off and drying her hands. _I'll just go back downstairs to the dining room and go to sleep... Everything will be fine tomorrow when I wake up..._

With these thoughts in mind, she exited the bathroom, passing a slow but steady stream of people heading to their various different rooms. Sakura thought she saw her mother and aunts as she walked down from the second floor, but it could've been a completely different set of redheads. Everybody shared so many features in her family.

On the first floor, now, Sakura noticed a group coming into the house from the front lawn. She thought about stopping, and saying hi, but remembered that she was sleepy. _So tired..._ So she just walked towards them, intending to pass.

Very suddenly, a strange thought entered her head. _I don't recognize them._ And then she immediately dismissed it, of course she didn't recognize them! Everybody was new to her!

And yet, even as she passed them, the thought sprung up again. _I don't know these people. They don't look familiar to me. Everybody in the family looks familiar. Why don't they look familiar?_ And again it was subdued. _I'll ask tomorrow, after I have a good night's sleep... But why can't I ask now? I don't know them and I should know them. They're my family._

Sakura stopped with her hand on the knob of the door that led into the dining room, feeling sweat begin to form on her head as one side of her thoughts began warring with the other. She was adamant that she needed to go to sleep, right now, and rest for the whole night. But she wanted to know who those people that weren't her family were doing in the house. But she shouldn't worry because everybody in the house was family, she should just go to sleep. But she wanted to _know_.

Her body stilled completely for a second as some thought clicked in the back of her mind, and her hands fell from the door and into the Ram symbol. Calling up the tiniest amount of chakra she could, she whispered, "Kai."

The fog lifted from her mind, and her first action was to shuffle backwards into the dark alcove created by the back stairs of the house. Her head was focused on the end of the hall, where the lone group of four that she'd seen had stopped, and the sight almost made her flinch. Those _weren't_ her family members.

They were Root.

As soon as the thought processed, Sakura instinctively pulled all of her chakra into a tight little ball, removing her from their senses. All the dread she'd been feeling throughout the day rose into a tidal wave and crashed over her... And then disappeared. In fact, almost all her emotions were gone as she fell into a battle mindset. All she saw was the enemy in her territory.

Her mind churned. She was six years old and lacked the ability to fight them. She was in a house full of shinobi and civilians with shinobi training. The whole house was under a strong area-affecting genjutsu. The person casting the genjutsu had to be somewhere in the center of the house in order to affect the whole building. That meant there were more than four of the enemy.

If the four in front of her made one group, then the person in the center was most likely apart of another four person group. The center of the building was approximately the middle of the second floor. If there was a group scouring the first floor and one on the second floor, there had to be one more group covering the third floor of the building. That meant twelve of the enemy. Eight of which were spread out on the floors where her family was sleeping.

It took ten seconds for her to complete those thoughts. In the next two seconds, she was crawling around to the stairs and then running along the wall to hide her footsteps as she reached the second floor. There was one Root member in the middle of the long hallway, kneeling, with another member standing guard over him. The two doors at the very end of the hall were open.

Sakura couldn't fight them but she knew three different counters to genjutsu, and one of them was guaranteed to wake other people up. As stealthily as possible, she crawled up to the ceiling and crouched, then tightened the ball of her chakra even further as she prepared the Ram seal. And then, unlike the tiny bit she used earlier to wake herself up, she pushed out as much as she could. "Kai!"

Whatever chakra she'd been using to stick to the ceiling dissipated, and she came crashing to the ground. Even as the standing Root member began rushing at her, however, Sakura had thought of this part as well. It was the best way to alert people to something wrong, after all.

She opened her mouth, took a deep breath, and _screamed_.

There was a second of absolute stillness, and then, there was pandemonium. Doors slammed open in the hallway, people came sprinting out in their nightclothes with weapon in hand, and screams began to sound through the house. The Tori-masked Root member was less than a foot away from her when someone she recognized as her aunt Chizuru spat a glob of lava into his shoulder, slamming him into the wall and burning straight through the armor he was wearing to begin eating away at his muscle and bone.

Sakura grabbed the discarded kunai in her hand, then felt herself being grabbed up. She thought it was one of her many cousins, but looking up, she found an Ox masked Root member was using her as a shield in order to back up. Her eyes caught the furious emeralds of an unnamed cousin of hers right before she slammed the kunai behind her and into the member's stomach.

He released her with a grunt of pain, and she realized her mistake right as they went toppling backwards down the stairs she'd come up only minutes ago. For a minute or so, the only thing she was cognizant of was _pain_, from her wrist that was stuck in the unconscious Root member's grasp, to the gash in her left arm from where the kunai he was holding went flying down with them.

Forcing herself to ignore it, Sakura struggled her way out from under the body and rolled out into the first floor hallway. Just as she pulled herself into a standing position, a Neko masked Root member when flying down the hallway, acid bubbling away at his skin from a two-pronged attack by Daisuke the fifth and the younger girl she recognized as 'Iori-san' from a few days before.

And they weren't the only ones fighting. She could see into the doorway of the dining room from her position, and all the youngest children were huddled up at the back of the room as the older cousins and siblings battled a small army of what she thought were earth clones, each in either a Boar or Lizard mask. Sakura couldn't believe she'd forgotten about Danzo's methods of 'recruiting' children into his forces.

She was snatched up again, and this time, the first thing she did was begin to kick and scream. There was cursing from above her, and she heard another voice call out, "Take that one and get out of here, now! She has a seal on her!"

Sakura was inclined to try and figure out what that meant, but not when she was being carried towards the door faster than she could see. They were intercepted by a man with long auburn hair in a low ponytail, and Sakura went tumbling to the floor, where she immediately crawled to the side and narrowly missed having her tiny faced smashed as the Karibi man went slamming into the wall above her due to a well placed kick.

Bleeding and exhausted, her half-hearted roll wasn't enough to get her away from the Tiger masked Root member as he growled and snatched at her with his good hand; the other appeared to be on the floor a few feet away from her, still oozing blood. _No, no, not Danzo, no,_ she couldn't help but think as she was lifted by the collar of her shirt. She was sick and tired of being repeatedly snatched up and dropped.

Understandably, she broke into full out sobbing when a familiar flash of white hair appeared in her vision and she heard her brother growl out, "Let her go before I murder you!" He followed his words up with a barefooted roundhouse kick, which impacted the Tiger mask so hard that both the porcelain and something in Jinya's foot cracked.

Jin didn't seem to notice the pain as he followed through, grabbing her into one of his arms and simultaneously dropping into a low sweeping kick that sent the Root member crashing hard to the ground. His other arm came up to support her under her legs, and he slumped back against the wall, panting. But he didn't stay there long. After only a second of rest, he rushed back towards the dining room.

The Boar and Lizard clones had dispersed, and all that was left was a group of frightened children and the coalition of Mei and Saeko driving the two original operatives away from the back of the room, trying not to use any jutsu where they might hurt the children.

She was still crying and clinging to her brother when, at some unbidden signal, he began forming seals and preparing for a jutsu at the two Root members' backs. Daisuke the fifth and Iori seemed to appear out of nowhere to either side of him, both forming hand seals as well.

There was another invisible signal Saeko and Mei suddenly jumped back, both using what Sakura recognized as _Doton: Doryuuheki_ to raise huge walls of earth that hid them and the children completely from sight. At the same time, her brother and the two other teens cried, "Yoton: Dai Yougan Heki!"

Three streams of lava, each of varying size, formed midair before shooting at the two Root members that had nowhere to dodge. The impact was loud and messy as the smell of things burning began to fill the air. The two large earth walls fell, and Mei was there, releasing a water jutsu onto the lava which hardened it into rock, leaving both of the enemies to fall to the ground with a good deal of their skin burnt into slag and hard rock encasing them.

Jin dropped to his knees, cradling her, while Mei only spared them a glance before rushing off to deal with the sounds of fighting coming from up the stairs. Saeko immediately began checking on the children behind her, both doing a head count and searching out whoever might be injured among them.

Quite suddenly, however, there was a spike of chakra from somewhere deeper into the house, and everything seemed to get extremely silent. And then there was a sound like rushing water, except that it very much _wasn't_.

The sound came from the inky black seals rising out of the walls, floors and ceilings of the house in the most inconceivable of places, which then took on the look of a speeding train as they glowed and then started moving. The most interesting and relieving part was that where the seals were moving, every member of Root was being dragged along as well, like trussed up pigs.

Even with seemingly every enemy either captured or killed, however, the chaos continued. The children were led outside, with those unharmed or mildly injured being put under the watch of the civilian members of the Karibi clan while all the injured, children or otherwise, were being taken around to the lake, where the grounds were steadily being covered with blankets and healing supplies.

A team of ten healthy shinobi was quickly assembled and then formed into a patrol to scout out the forests and land surrounding the house for any stragglers or accomplices. Another group of civilian members was compiled to go out into the town and start getting water, bandages and other supplies, as well as cleaning products. There was a group to take care of burn wounds. Another was formed to start making some quick meals to give the exhausted people sustenance.

The clan as a whole was undergoing several headcounts, family by family, and then looking for stragglers. All the pregnant women had to be checked over and watched; one woman, Karibi-Harue Yuki, had gone into labor from the shock of it all. Nearly twenty of the shinobi clan members, including their grandmother Ruriko, were inside and powering the house's defense system which had been activated earlier as well as guarding the prisoners in one of the back rooms on the bottom floor.

The sun was beginning to rise when things had finally gotten somewhere close to calm, and it was at this time that Nadeshiko found her children out by the lake. Jinya's right foot was wrapped tightly in bandages, and he was cradling Sakura, who had bandages on both arms and around her head, with a stormy expression stuck somewhere between deep worry and leftover anger at the thought of his imouto being hurt.

The woman's already reddened eyes watered again as she scooped them into a hug, kissing both children on the head repeatedly, her throat too sore for her to get out more than 'I love you' and 'I'm so glad you're both alright.' She also spared a somewhat tighter hug for Sakura, whispering, "Oh, my baby, you saved us all..."

Sakura, for her part, was exhausted. She'd cried out all the tears she could and used up all her emotions and all her energy. Overall, she was happy that her family was for the most part alive and well, if injured, but she was too tired to even think. At the same time, she was afraid to go to sleep, fearing that she would have nightmares after the past few hours.

So she stayed curled up in her brother's arms, let her mother kiss and pat her as much as it would take to reassure the woman, and hoped that the fight had been the end of the entire horrible ordeal.

She was too tired to consider that Murphy's Law might just come into play.

* * *

Two days had passed. It was New Year's day and although parts of the house were still in shambles, for the most part, everyone was doing their best to make the air as festive as possible, considering the circumstances. There had miraculously been no deaths for the family, but some people were still teetering on the edge, clinging to life as best as they could and luckily improving by the hour. More than a few shinobi careers had been put on hold for a long while, and maybe even ended, depending on the severity of the injuries.

Despite it all, however, the whole family had grown closer to each other, and they were pushing forward. Bright colored pictures were drawn, bandages were painted with the colors of the rainbow, food was constantly being made, and every game one could think of was being played somewhere on the property. People put on acrobatics shows or used low-level genjutsu abilities to play out stories for everyone to watch. If somebody had an idea on a way to lighten the mood, it was immediately put into play.

Inside the house, teams of people were cleaning up rooms and doing what they could to repair the massive collateral damage that had been inflicted to the walls and floors. Groups of girls traveled into the house over and over to see the newest addition to the family, Karibi-Harue Kisshou, whose name meant 'lucky omen.' The baby boy and his mother had both survived the early birth without any complications.

Behind all this, of course, were the less than pleasant parts of 'pushing forward.' Like dealing with the prisoners. Although everybody was aware that they were still somewhere nearby, nobody except a select group of people was aware of their location. Nine Root members had died either during the fighting or in the aftermath, and their bodies had been dealt with personally by the collective parents of all the children who'd been threatened during the ambush.

Ruriko and one of her older sisters, Raisen Yura, had personally dealt with the remaining three prisoners. They were specially qualified for this because, for them, it wasn't the first time they'd encountered members of this special force. In fact, they had clashed with Root twice before, both times in the defense of their homes and lives. While Yura had always been targeted because of her position as a well known shinobi diplomat, Ruriko was pursued with slightly more force.

This was because besides Shimura Danzo, Ruriko was quite likely the only person in the world that had the ability to unlock the seals that every Root member carried on their tongue, keeping them from sharing any information that they might have. In her youth, Ruriko had been apprenticed to the Uzumaki clan of Uzushiogakure, who were best known for their abilities as seal masters. It was also the reason that the Uzumaki had been so viciously decimated, when other families from Uzu had been allowed to get out alive or surrender without being hunted further. They were simply the most dangerous to the eyes of the shinobi world.

After the removal of their seals, the interrogation of the prisoners was swift and brutal. After plucking every bit of information from their minds, from the location of their base and their purpose to their individual favorite colors, two of the prisoners were executed. One was left alive, although not for much longer, and being kept in the darkened basement of the house.

And it was here that Haruno Sakura stood, trying to confirm something that she'd overheard earlier yet refused to believe, and honestly, still didn't believe despite the proof before her eyes, chained up in shackles and bowing his head in shame. Her mind just couldn't compute whatever was going on. She didn't even notice the fat tears rolling down her face.

_"...Nadeshiko doesn't need to know. He told her that he was called off for a diplomatic incident, and that is what she will believe. My daughter tries to be strong, but she has always been fragile, and I will not let her or my grandchildren suffer with this knowledge for the rest of their lives. We will heal his body and leave him in Ta no Kuni for the patrols to find and bring back to her, the victim of a bandit attack. It's better that way, Yura. For everyone involved..."_

Sakura wished she had the chance to believe that as well. But that was impossible now. _Is this what my changes wrought...?_

"...Otousan..."

* * *

A/N: Yup... Twisting and changing and bending and breaking. Haruno Daisuke was the Root plant. Also, I'm sorry that I suck at fight scenes.


	12. E m o t i o n A n d H o n o r

Dear **everybody who thinks that I update fast**: I'm on break from college right now. Just so you know.

Also, I'm female. Since people seem to be wondering. Does anybody think that I should **change the summary**? Or the **title**, which is **kind of corny**?

Last chapter of the reunion here. And then... Well, you'll see.

* * *

Sakura couldn't remember how she'd originally coped with anger as a six year old. She'd never been one of those children who had loud tantrums and screaming fits, nor did she go sit in corners and ignore the rest of the world until she felt better or they apologized. She'd never even done the whole pouting-scowl thing that children seemed to think was intimidating instead of amusingly cute.

Of course, the pink haired girl had also never been so completely _enraged_ as a six year old, or really, at any age. There were some times that came close (_curiously, they were usually in conjunction with either the name 'Sasuke' or 'Naruto'_) but not even those times could compare to how she felt at the moment.

She'd gone through shock, and denial, followed by a fit of depression so strong that she spent four hours in the room where she'd first found Sai alternately crying and questioning everything from her beliefs to her ability to change _anything_ for the better. Of course, the depression couldn't last long, and very quickly, it turned into anger. Unfortunately, it was an anger with no direction, because she couldn't bring herself to blame her Otousan for anything, knowing he would _die_ soon, and being angry at Danzo only served to cloud her head when she should be planning on how to deal with him _effectively_.

Her anger came out in the power of her jutsu when training started up again the day after New Year's. Mei had started off teaching her the seals for one D-Rank katon jutsu, so she would get used to the unusual feel her chakra would take when it changed into a fire nature. The way she performed it, a tiny stream of flames about the thickness of a pencil and two feet long would be created, and typically used to light a small campfire.

With a combination of Sakura's natural chakra control and her anger stirring her energy up to new levels, it became something more similar to a flamethrower and charred a log to bits. While Sai had stopped his attempts to use the jutsu in favor of clapping, the future Mizukage had simply stared, as if she didn't believe what she'd just seen. It made sense, considering Sakura's injuries and how small she was.

Unfortunately, being small meant that her chakra reserves were still so pitiful despite a few months of practice that she could only do that three times before she became too exhausted to form one. Without that temporary outlet, Sakura began to feel her emotional turmoil rising up again, and she had the urge to completely _destroy_ something as well after feeling how therapeutic charring the log had been. She just didn't know what to do with herself.

Luckily, Jinya did. Her white-haired aniki had taken one glance at her surly expression as she was walking into the house and abandoned his training group in order to come over. "Sakura-hime, what's wrong?" He asked, clearly worried.

Looking up at him, Sakura was dismayed to feel tears welling up in her eyes. Still, she decided to answer. "I'm sad and angry and I feel weak and nasty and full like a balloon," she mumbled out, wiping harshly at her face. Even if it was expected of her at this age, she hated crying. Crying didn't solve any problems.

Instead of looking at her as if he felt pity, Jinya gave her a little smile, and said, "I think I know a cure for that. Come on, I'll show you what I do when I'm really angry and I can't do anything about it yet." With that, he scooped her up and carried her into the house.

They almost passed their grandmother on the way, but she stopped them with a gentle hand to Jinya's shoulder. "Hello there, Sakura-chan, Jinya-kun. Where are you headed?" Ruriko asked, a kindly smile on her face. "Not to aggravate your wounds, I hope?"

Jin just smiled at her when Sakura couldn't, and winked. "It's a secret, obaasan. The secretive kind of secret. The secretive kind of secret that's..._ Secret_," the boy ended in a stage whisper. His silliness was rewarded with a few giggles from both his grandmother and Sakura. "But I promise we won't be hurting ourselves."

Smiling, the auburn-haired woman gave each of their heads a quick ruffle, and nodded. "Alright then. You two come find me when you're done. I'll be in the small dining room, setting a few things up."

"Hai, obaasan."

Although Sakura found herself curious about what her grandmother could want with them as she was carried off, she was more focused on Jinya's 'secretive kind of secret that was _secret_.' _It must be something effective,_ the pink-haired girl found herself thinking. _I don't think I've ever seen aniki acting angry, even when he should be..._ Unbidden, an image of his enraged face when he saved her from the Root member appeared. _Not unless you're an enemy, I suppose..._

With her mind on that night, she was understandably surprised when Jin's secret method of anger management was a pillow. "I don't get it, aniki."

His reply was simple: "Scream."

Blinking, Sakura looked up into eyes identical to her own, then back at the pillow, confused. _Scream...?_ And then it clicked. "But how is that going to help?"

He just kept smiling. "Oh, it does help, trust me. You know you're doing it properly when the pillow's all wet and you feel too tired to make yourself get up. Just try it. And remember, think about whatever's bothering you and just scream as loudly as you can. That's what the pillow is there for."

She felt dubious, but decided to give it a try anyways. At first, she just felt silly, but as she kept taking deeper breaths and screaming as loud as she could, she was startled to feel herself beginning to cry. And with the crying came words between the screams: 'why?' 'Otousan!' 'I love you, I love you, I love you, I HATE you!' The best part was being able to rage and kick her feet around and hit the pillow with her fists and _scream_ everything out without hurting anyone or having someone hear the words when they shouldn't.

At the end of ten minutes, where she lay with her face in the pillow and Jinya rubbed her back, Sakura was all screamed out and she felt more boneless and relaxed than she had in a while. When she lifted her face up, she knew that she'd done it 'properly' because the pillow was soaked and she felt exactly like Jin said she would. She was silent as he wiped her face with a handful of tissues, but she gave him a bright, watery smile which he returned.

"Feels loads better, doesn't it? And now that you're all tuckered out, you can think clearly without feeling like you're about to explode. It's a good method. Now we can go find obaasan." Trailing off into a tuneless string of humming, Jin scooped her up again and started on the journey to the small dining room, leaving her to quietly collect herself.

When they reached the small dining room, not only was Ruriko sitting at the table, but Nadeshiko and their aunt Saeko were sitting there as well. The three seemed to be chatting quietly over a box sitting in the middle of the table, and between the youngest two, a scroll was being referred to.

The conversation stopped when Saeko waved them over with a cheerful smile on her face, having noticed them before they reached the door. Nadeshiko opened her mouth to ask if Sakura was alright as Jin took a chair for both of them, but she decided against it when she noticed that her youngest daughter was smiling despite her reddened eyes and face.

"Konnichiwa," Ruriko greeted them with a smile. "I've been meaning to speak to you two, especially Sakura-chan, for a few days now." Turning her attention fully to her pink-haired granddaughter, she gently asked, "Could you tell me how you knew that something was wrong, hime?"

"Um..." _Crap, I was hoping they would forget about that,_ Sakura thought, biting her lip but inwardly panicking about what to say. "I was going to the bathroom to wash my face when I started feeling really, really sleepy..." _I'll just play it off,_ she decided mentally. _I'm supposed to be a genius, right?_ "And I decided to go to sleep. And when I was walking, I noticed that _everybody_ was going to bed, except when I was walking to the room, four of my ojisan weren't. And I thought that I didn't know who they were. I was going to ask, but I was really sleepy, so I didn't. But I was really curious. But I was also really sleepy. And then I was really confused because I was really sleepy and really curious at the same time. And then I thought there was probably something wrong."

"And what did you do then?" Saeko prodded. The redhead woman suddenly seemed very interested in the story. _She can recognize genjutsu at her age?_

"I did this," Sakura brought her fingers into a hand seal, "And I used my chakra and said 'kai.' But only because my friend Sasuke-kun's big brother Itachi-san's friend Shisui-san sometimes plays tricks on Sasuke-kun that make him confused like that and that's how Itachi-san taught Sasuke-kun to get out of them and Sasuke-kun showed me how to do it," she explained. And then she smiled, because smiling always made people believe Jinya and it usually worked for her too.

_Oh, she's so precious!_ Ruriko thought, unknowingly echoing both her daughter's sentiments as they all looked at the girl. She didn't notice that Jinya had a strangely amused look on his face, like he was thinking of something funny. "And what about after that, Sakura-chan?"

"Um... I stopped being confused when I did it, and when I looked back, the ojisan weren't ojisan at all. They looked like they were ANBU-san, but they had different masks and they didn't have the swirly tattoos." _Crud, I can't say that I sensed more of them upstairs, what do I do?_ "I sneaked up the stairs and I saw more of them up there, but I thought that since nobody else noticed them, maybe everyone else was confused too! So I did 'kai' again, only I did it like my friend Naruto does, because he has lots of chakra and when he does it everybody can feel it, not just him. But then they noticed me and they had swords so I got scared so I screamed, and everybody woke up and I think Aunt Chizuru saved me. And then everything gets all blurry and I can't really remember what happened until the house got all inky and all the shinobi started to be pulled away."

Decidedly, Sakura had no intentions of mentioning the seal on her locket, which she'd found was also on a pair of earrings that her mother had received and a chain Jinya had. While she'd never truly understood seals, she had learned and memorized quite a few of them, mostly for the sole purpose of helping Naruto with his when his acted up and needed repair. Luckily, the one that she and her close family had was simple; it was a sort of sensor that started pulsing if a specific pattern of chakra came into contact with it. They were extremely easy to dismantle.

It seemed that even when her father had turned against them, he was still looking out for their well-being. _But that wasn't enough, Otousan..._ Sakura forcibly pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind, and tuned back in to reality, where her aunt and her grandmother had started conversing in quiet tones. She decided to use this time to ask something she'd been wondering about. "Ne, obaasan, what was that? When the house grabbed all the shinobi and pulled them away?"

Ruriko blinked, then smiled at her inquisitive granddaughter. "Well, that was something that your aunts and I have been working on for a few years now. It's a really big seal that, when it has enough chakra put into it, searches the entire house for anyone that shouldn't be there and pulls them all into one place where we can find them and make sure they aren't intruders."

"But how did it know who was considered an 'intruder' or not?" Jinya questioned, a curious look on his face to match his younger sister's.

"Do you remember when you first got here, and you took a picture and used a bit of your blood to make a finger-print in that big book in the kitchen?" Saeko asked, taking over from her mother. "Well, when you gave your finger-print, it turned into a sort of key to the house and the seal. Anyone without a key would get snatched up."

Sakura desperately wanted to know, then, how her father had been caught. But she couldn't ask because she wasn't supposed to know that he had been apart of the forces. Some part of her, however, was hopeful. _Maybe... Otousan turned himself in...? No. Stop thinking like that, Sakura. It's time to just... Just... Move on or something..._

"...reason we could do something so large is because when I was very little, perhaps your age, Jinya-kun, instead of going on missions for Uzushiogakure, I was taken in as an apprentice to Uzumaki Daigo." Ruriko smiled when she noticed both Sakura and Jinya perking up at the name. "It was from he and his family that I learned how to use seals to such devastating effect. Because he was my sensei, I would and will be forever grateful to the Uzumaki. I was very sad when my village was destroyed and they were wiped out, but Nadeshiko-chan has been telling me about a friend of yours..."

"Naruto?" Sakura piped up, eyes wide with curiosity. She hadn't expected that her older family members would let her in on something as potentially big as this. "But he's an orphan," she continued, hoping that they would get to the point. "Nobody knows who his parents are."

"Well, that's what your okaasan told me, but I think I do know. An Uzumaki from our village went to live in Konoha a long time ago; her name was Kushina." Oblivious to Sakura's mental cheering at the name, Ruriko continued, "She was the only Uzumaki left when Uzu was destroyed. Our family was in a lot of chaos in the years after that, and we were so busy trying to find and contact each other that we never took the time to get in contact with her. We figured that our last chance to reconnect with the Uzumaki clan was gone when the news came that she passed away a few years ago."

"But it seems that your friend Naruto was born right around the time that she passed away," Nadeshiko continued gently, smiling at her children. "And once okaasan heard about him, she decided to give him some things she has carried that belonged to the Uzumaki." She patted the box on the table, then continued, "We thought, since you are his friend, that you would like to give him the news and this package. And maybe one day, he can come with us when we visit here, and he can learn even more about his family. Do you like that idea?"

_More than you could ever know!_ Sakura thought, nodding enthusiastically. "Hai!"

* * *

Seven days after New Year's, the end of the Reunion came, full of tears, hugs, and the trading of a great many scrolls with contact details. Each of the children who'd decided to become a shinobi was given a scroll of simple exercises and techniques to help further them in learning how to use the signature jutsu of their kekkei genkai, in addition to whatever they might learn from their parents and siblings.

The groups departed by their country of origin with a few hours between each departure, so that they wouldn't crowd up the docks waiting for more boats to ferry them. Since Nami was closer to Hi no Kuni than Mizu, the groups that would need to trek in that direction to get home were the first to depart. This meant that the Haruno brood would be leaving with Sakura's uncle Genji and by proxy, Sai.

Once they got on the boat, Jinya started up a game of cards with the same group of cousins that he'd been defeating throughout the past week or so in different games, and Sakura found herself holding Sai by the hand and explaining random things on the boat and in the water that he asked about. The easy question-and-answer repartee between them was surprisingly relaxing.

Relaxation was just what Sakura needed at that point. If she wasn't remembering different moments with her father, she was thinking about Naruto and how he'd react to hearing about his family. If that wasn't on her mind, she was pondering her brother, who had quite suddenly stopped asking her questions with answers that slowly advanced in skill level each time. When she managed to lay _that_ topic to rest, she found herself thinking about how Sai would be returning home with his father to Rindou no Sato, not Konoha, and how she didn't know when she'd next get to see him.

Later that day, however, Sakura found that her last concern wasn't quite valid.

"...What?" She found herself asking.

Smiling brightly, Nadeshiko repeated what she'd just said. "We'll be going with Genji-oniisan and Saichi-chan to Rindou no Sato first so we can burn down their house."

"_Why?_" Jinya asked, looking mildly horrified at the thought.

This time it was their uncle Genji, a tall, broad-shouldered man with thick reddish-brown hair and hazel green eyes, who answered. "Well, kid, I've been looking to move closer to family for a while now, and since Saichi-kun here seems so close to Sakura-chan, I thought, why not Konoha? But it takes too much time to notify all the proper authorities and get papers together and the house was useless anyways, so the way I figure it, we can just seal everything important into scrolls and burn it down in the middle of the night! That way I get insurance money and a free pass to search out housing in Konoha." And then the man laughed, loudly, only to stop and clutch at his bandaged side in pain. "Ouch... Forgot about that damn wound... But no wound is gonna get me down! HA!" And he began laughing again, clutching his side all the while.

Staring at her uncle, laughing and at her mother, smiling as if nothing was wrong with anything they'd just said, it occurred to Sakura for the first time that maybe she wasn't the only person in her family who was just a little _tweaked_ mentally. She wondered how she'd missed that, and then discarded the thought, deciding to just go along with it.

Family is family, after all.

* * *

At three in the morning on the day that her house was finally emptied of visitors, Karibi Ruriko stood in a clearing of the forest behind her home and stared at the silent, kneeling form of her last living prisoner from the attack a week ago. She didn't restrain him and he didn't attempt to get away.

Ruriko had lived through two wars and countless minor disputes throughout her life. She'd seen every type of ugly to be had in the Elemental Countries, and more than once, she had taken part in that 'ugly.' There was more blood on her hands than water in the lake behind her home. She'd become tired of death and struggles and pain many, many years ago, and that was why she'd chosen to settle down in Nami no Kuni, a place with no shinobi and very little contact with shinobi countries outside of trade. She just wanted peace and family in her life.

In her opinion, family was everything. It didn't matter where they lived or who they worked for, so long as the family itself stuck together. It was the reason why, despite her family having many different shinobi from so many villages that weren't necessarily allies, she still managed to bring them all together peacefully and promote the ties between all of them.

Because of this, she'd managed to see something in Haruno Daisuke that was really the only reason he was still alive. He was a man that helped to nearly destroy her entire family from the eldest to the infants, but his saving grace was that even in the midst of that, he was family, and he'd sought to protect her daughter and grandchildren. For that, she would give him a chance.

In front of the kneeling man, she laid a white kimono, an unsheathed dagger, a pen, and two small scrolls. One scroll was blank, and the other, to the side, was sealed with wax. "Daisuke-kun..."

The man flinched at the familiar address.

"...You have loved my Nadeshiko-chan since she was thirteen. You helped build this house when our first was destroyed, and you made your own home for my daughter to show me that you could take care of her. Later, you gave me two beautiful, intelligent grandchildren. And recently, you helped to protect them from your own wrong choices. No matter what you've done, you will always be a part of my family, even if you did stray down the wrong path." Pausing, Ruriko took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down and keep the tears from falling out of her eyes.

It took a minute or so, but when she regained her equilibrium, she continued, "There are two choices in front of you. I am giving you the chance to commit seppuku and regain your honor in death... Or you can take that scroll and try to right your wrongs. Either way, when I return in two hours, that other scroll will no longer be blank. Whether it is your death poem or something else is up to you."

Daisuke didn't look up from the kimono and dagger as she walked away. The white haired man had made many mistakes in his lifetime, and his most recent was the one that hit him hardest. The memory of his young daughter, bandaged and bruised, staring up at him in shock would haunt him for the rest of eternity.

_Honor and family, _he mused, trailing his fingers along the edge of the dagger and watching the blood well up. _Can I really make things right...?_

* * *

A/N: If you don't know, **seppuku** is Japanese ritual suicide or something like that. Wikipedia is your friend. This one is shorter than the last few, I know, but this is a bit of a transition chapter. Explanations for things and wrapping up loose ends. And a cliffhanger, I guess. But next chapter, we get back to Konoha. The chapters about Konoha feel differently than these ones, don't they?


	13. O r i g i n O f C h a n g e

So. I finally took the time to get updated on what's been happening in the Naruto series lately. And I went back and made a **nice little change** in the first chapter to make things sorta canon-compliant-ish. _Sorta_. I wonder if anyone will spot it? Either way, it's only helping me with this story later on.

Also, **over 100 reviews**! Yay! Maybe I'll do an omake to celebrate. Is there a scene that people want to see that I skipped, or just didn't put in for some reason?

And also, props to **A Twin** who pretty much made me like the title of the story when he (or, perhaps, she) said "The Lotus of Konoha blooms twice!" And now, on with the chapter!

* * *

For Naruto, the week leading up to New Year's day felt extremely awkward. After several months where he never went more than two days without seeing his friend Sakura, he didn't know what do with himself when she was gone. He visited the Uchiha district twice, but he found that without Sakura around, all he ever did was argue with Sasuke about who was better with one thing or another, and additionally, he was still particularly uncomfortable around Mikoto-san. She had certainly become _nicer_ to him, but it was such a sudden change from how she'd acted before that he was wary of a relapse. In any case, he wasn't used to adults being so touchy and huggy with him.

He might've gone if Itachi was still on his break from ANBU, but the day after Sakura left to her family reunion was also the day that Crow rejoined his circle of watchers. Even getting interesting little tips from Sasuke's funny older cousin, Shisui, wasn't worth the kind of awkwardness caused by going over there without Sakura to make him feel comfortable.

Suddenly bereft of his normal pastime, Naruto had tried going to the park for once. Without Sakura, however, it was no fun at all. She was one of the only children willing to play with him, and most of the other children were warned away from him as soon as their parents realized exactly who he was.

The blonde missed the times from earlier that year, when he'd first been allowed to go to civilian school and walk around in the village without an escort. He been so _excited_ about being able to meet people for once, and he'd been eager to make friends his age. For the first week or so, lots of other people had wanted to be his friend too. But that only lasted for as long as it took for the information to spread to the parents about who he was. Before, nobody knew the name 'Uzumaki Naruto.' Now, he didn't even like walking through the village because people moved away from him and started whispering when they caught sight of him.

After four days, Naruto resigned himself to staying in ANBU HQ during the day, drawing, asking questions of the off-duty members, and putting together puzzles to pass the time. New Year's day itself wasn't so bad, since Inu had taken that day and the following one off so they could go to the festival in Tanzaku Gai, where nobody would recognize Naruto and he could have all the fun he wanted. It _was_ fun, really, and the two of them had won bunches of prizes and ate so many sweets that Naruto got a stomach ache. He'd even gotten a mask for himself and picked up a present for Sakura!

Of course, Inu was the captain of all the ANBU forces, and he couldn't stay away very long. Soon enough, they were back in the village, and Naruto was back to being bored and wishing for time to go faster so that his friend would come back to Konoha, and more importantly, him. He _missed_ her. He'd never missed anybody so badly in his whole life.

Thus, the day that Sakura said she'd be returning was one of much anticipation for him. The only reason that he wasn't standing around by the gates at six in the morning was because of the combined forces of both Neko and Crow, who convinced him it was a better idea to go check her house after lunch to see if they'd returned and started to unpack. Naruto grudgingly agreed, but nothing could stop him from bouncing around HQ like a rabbit on crack until Inu gave him some money and all but ordered him to go eat at Ichiraku's.

As soon as 12:30 came around (_lunch was over, right?_), Naruto shot out of Ichiraku's as if someone had lit a firecracker under his seat and set a beeline course for the Western sector of Konoha, where most civilian families (_including Sakura's!_) lived, worked, and shopped.

As it happened, however, his enthusiasm withered and died before he ever made it to the front door of the house. It wasn't because he didn't want to see Sakura, of course; it was because when he got there, she was coming out of the door and smiling at another little boy who he'd never seen before. Almost instantly, every bit of self-doubt that had faded away after getting to know her came back to the forefront of his mind.

_She made a new friend while she was gone... What if she doesn't want to be friends with me anymore? I mean, she's already friends with stupid Sasuke, and I bet this guy isn't all weird either... People probably won't make fun of her for being friends with _him_... Maybe she doesn't need to be friends with me anymore..._

Biting on his thumb, Naruto turned around and began heading the way he came, not wanting to face the rejection that he was sure would be inevitable from his first real friend now that she'd found someone _better_ to hang out with. As with every time he tried to sneak away from Sakura, however, she seemed to catch him on the edge of her perception.

The next thing Naruto knew, he was on the ground, being squeezed around the neck by Sakura, who was trying to say three different things at once and not actually managing to get one of them out before she thought of something more important from another. "Ow..." _Why does she always tackle me?_ Part of him, however, burst into hope. _She's not hitting me, so maybe she still wants to be my friend!_

Taking a huge, gasping breath as she suddenly ran out of air, Sakura noticed that Naruto wasn't saying anything, and belatedly realized that they were on the ground. "Oh, oops! Sorry, Naruto!" Standing, and still practically humming with energy, she tugged him up with two strong pulls. "Naruto you have to come inside now because I have a surprise to show you and you need to meet my cousin Sai and my uncle Genji and they're all inside with the surprise so come _on!_"

Before he managed to compute everything she'd just said, Naruto found himself being tugged all the way across the road, into the house, and into the living room where the black haired boy was standing around looking at things curiously. Well, he was until he spotted them next to the fluffy white couch. Then he was staring at _Naruto_.

The blonde fought the desire to shrink back under the boy's strangely intent stare as Sakura introduced him. "Hi," he mumbled out, shuffling a bit on his feet. "Uh... My name's Naruto... I'm six... Why are _staring_ at me like that?" He couldn't help but demand at the end as the boy stepped closer, leaving barely any space between them.

"My name is Tou-ken Sai-chi. I'm six," Sai introduced himself, before continuing in a somewhat awed tone, "You have the pret-ti-est hair I've ever seen. It's _yellow_. And your eyes are _blue_. I've never seen eyes so _blue_ before."

"W-what?" Naruto sputtered, stepping back as Sai moved even closer, reaching out to touch his hair. "I'm a boy! Boys aren't pretty, only girls are!"

Sai seemed confused as he protested, "But they _are_ the pret-ti-est I've ever seen." Heedless of the concept of 'personal space,' the black haired boy continued trying to touch Naruto's hair. While Sakura realized that Sai was simply fascinated with bright colors, Naruto had no such knowledge.

Sakura found herself stifling the most laughter she'd managed in days as Sai persevered in trying to touch Naruto's hair (_"Gah, stop trying to touch me!"_) and the blonde only got more and more weirded out by the other's fascination. The pink-haired girl was disinclined to put a stop to the spectacle, as she felt lighter than she had for the last week seeing the two. She hadn't thought that this Naruto even had the ability to be so horrified at something or someone, but she was finding that the longer she knew him, the more he opened up.

Unfortunately, the hilarity had to end at some point, which it did as Sai attempted a slight lunge and Naruto stopped him by physically holding him away, looking mildly horrified at the boy's pleading expression. "The _only_ reason I'm not kicking your ass right now is because you're Sakura-chan's cousin. Now _stop trying to touch me_."

Naruto said the whole thing in such a serious tone that by the time Nadeshiko poked her head into the living room, wondering what was going on, Sakura was literally tearing up from laughter and clutching at her sides as the muscles in her stomach began to hurt.

"What's going on?" The redheaded woman asked, blinking at the three children in front of her. She didn't think she'd ever seen her daughter laugh so hard, and couldn't help but smile at the sight.

Sakura only laughed harder when, as Naruto tried to explain the situation to her mother, Sai continued to look just as innocent as he always did. The best part was that he honestly couldn't see what was wrong about what he'd been doing. By the smile Nadeshiko wore, as if she were only seconds away from laughing herself, her mother realized the same.

Once both Naruto and Sakura were calmed down, Nadeshiko gave her young daughter a smile and a sort of _look_, then took Sai by the hand and began leading him towards the kitchen, saying, "You can help me start setting the table while we wait for your otousan, Saichi-chan."

Before Naruto could wonder why the two of them had been left behind, Sakura took him by the hand and tugged him towards the stairs and her room, once again vibrating with anticipatory energy. "Come _on_, Naruto! You'll never believe my surprise!"

For all the bad things that came from traveling back in time, Sakura thought that her 'surprise' ranked right up there with saving her family and being able to see Jinya again on the list of pros that outweighed the cons. She was giving Naruto, who would sacrifice so much for her in the future, something that he'd _always_ wanted: something of his family.

There would be consequences, she was sure, but... _Consequences be damned,_ she thought, watching Naruto's face light up as she gave him the box of mementos and carefully explained exactly what they meant. _Maybe now, he won't feel so alone in the world..._

* * *

As the commanding officer of every ANBU squadron in the village, Hatake Kakashi was seen as one of the most powerful people in Konoha behind the Hokage. By proxy of his position and his association with their leader, there was also another quality associated with his name: loyalty. He had always been seen as exceedingly _loyal_. Truthfully, people weren't far off the mark when they made that assumption of him.

What nobody seemed cognizant of, however, was that Kakashi's loyalty was sparsely given and in his life, he could count the number of people he'd been completely and unfailingly loyal to on his hands, with fingers to spare.

Hatake Sakumo, his father, had been the light in his life... Until he snuffed himself out. Uchiha Obito had only had his loyalty for under an hour before he died. A girl named Rin, his teammate, hadn't believed in his loyalty, and in the end, disappeared from his life. Maito Gai didn't really need his loyalty, because he knew how to get by on his own. And he'd been loyal to Uchiha Itachi since before the boy even knew he existed, as he remembered the child Obito had fondly complained about and missed team meetings to care for.

Above and beyond all others, however, there were two people who took him into their lives and made him into the man that he was today with all the tender, loving knocks to the head that it took. Uzumaki Kushina had gained what countless others hadn't just by being herself, and Namikaze Minato had been the one to raise him, train him, and teach him all the little things that a orphaned, closed off child might never ask for but would desperately need.

So, as he held their crying six year old legacy in his lap and stared at all the little scrolls, tattered pictures and talismans cluttering the boy's bed, it was clear to him that no village leader or shinobi council could ever convince him to take those things away from the child. If he was as loyal to the village as most people in Konoha believed, these little pieces of 'family' would never see the light of day again.

But there was a little boy named Uzumaki Naruto who was a lot more important to him than all of them combined, so instead, he would take the more fulfilling route and teach him a nifty little trick that would let him hide everything he wanted as long as he had the right amount of space.

_You weren't here to teach him these things, but I guess it was fate that he would know anyways, ne sensei, Kushina-hime?_

And to think, just a few months ago he'd been suspiscious of that pink haired little girl...

* * *

Nine days had passed since he'd last received a report from his operatives, and anger wasn't the best description for the way that Danzo felt. If he were to describe his turbulent, steadily blackening emotions, he would use the phrase _'absolutely unquenchable rage with power such that it might ignite the ocean in white-hot flames_._'_ But he'd always been more dramatic than he should be when he got worked up.

_Twelve operatives. The best of the very best... Gone without a trace._ But he knew exactly what had happened to them. Someway, somehow, despite meticulous planning and the most high-level genjutsu Danzo had ever experienced beyond the infamous Tsukuyomi of the Sharingan... His Root had _failed_. His _best_ had failed. And they, along with his only inside source of information on one very persistent thorn in his side, had not only been killed as would be the case with any other enemy, but their seals were dismantled as well.

All of his current plans, the names of his outside sources, the missions he used his army to complete, the locations and passwords to his bases... They all sat in the hands of one woman he'd come to loath over thirty years ago. And not only had she decimated a significant amount of the power he held, but she had silently thrown it right back in his face; not only did Haruno Nadeshiko and her children return _without a visible scratch_, but they'd brought _more_ of their brood with them. Even as Danzo sat in his office and stewed, Touken Genji and his child were moving into their new home. Yet more Karibi influence silently making it's way into Konoha.

The only saving grace to the situation was that Karibi Ruriko was a weak, peace loving old woman. She would take the information she had and hold it tightly to her bosom, not wanting to present it and bring her entire family into the beginning of a new conflict. It wasn't the first time she'd learned of his motives and operations without making a move, after all.

They were just more secrets that the old fool would take to the grave. If Danzo had his way, he would be there personally to oversee the cremation of her body and the end to another facet of his troubles.

Like every great manipulator, however, Danzo failed to take something into account: _anything that can go wrong, will go wrong_.

* * *

After several decades of leading Konoha, Sarutobi Hiruzen had developed a very set system of expectations for when the unexpected inevitably happened. If things occurred early in the morning, they were only the very beginning of a long headache for him. When his meals and relaxation times were interrupted, he would almost certainly find himself dealing with some form of collateral damage in the very near future. If someone willingly stopped him from doing the paperwork he tried so hard to avoid, there was a near hundred percent chance that bloodshed was involved.

As it happened, however, Hiruzen had never before found himself being snuck upon by a formerly well-known and trusted civilian in the dead of the night, right in the halls of his own tower. While he relied on his instincts and stayed the urge to draw a weapon, he simply assumed that he would be facing a headache, collateral damage, _and_ bloodshed at some point in the future. Mentally, he reminded himself to stock up on pain-killers and schedule a check-up with his doctor in the near future.

Withholding a sigh, the Sandaime Hokage ordered, "Rise. What is your purpose here, council member?"

The gray-eyed man stood, as silent as a shadow, and removed his hood. Still, he kept his head bowed to the ground as he answered, slow and calm, "There are eleven uncharted entrances into Konoha that breach the main walls. There are three entrances to your tower with no sensors, no guards, and no seals to monitor them. In your own office, there are two seals molded into the underside of your desk, transmitting every word audible within fifteen feet of it. And a Tori masked ANBU in your personal guard, code name 'Waraki,' was never loyal to you in the first place."

Hiruzen nearly had a heart attack from the information, which he sensed was only the tip of the iceberg. As it was, his pulse quickened so much that he could hear it standing still. It was a fight to keep his cool. "There is more, I presume."

"Hai, Hokage-sama."

"And what do you wish for in return?" Such information was never free.

The man's body became unnaturally still, before he intoned, "I have two children and a wife who know nothing of any of this, who I would give anything to protect. There is a woman who has made every sacrifice possible for the peace of her family, who only wants to remain uninvolved. And finally, there is a devastating mistake I made, that I only wish for the chance to make amends for. I won't ask for my life when this is done... But those three things are what I need to clean my soul."

"And the proof?" The man's hand moved, and Sarutobi only kept from tensing because it was almost achingly slow. It was a small scroll that he received, tied with a simple blue ribbon much like the ones used to decorate birthday presents. When he read the short words on the scroll and his hands almost began to shake, he started to think that this scroll _was_ an early birthday present.

There was a seal at the very bottom, and it took all his willpower not to activate it that very moment. "This... If this is true... Show me," Hiruzen demanded.

In a move that would seem strange to any outsider, the man opened his mouth, grabbed his own tongue, and showed the Hokage a set of fading black marks that could've just come from eating too much liquorice. But both men knew better.

Quite suddenly, Sarutobi found himself becoming very, very calm. Although the other side didn't know it, a battle had just begun. And he needed a cool head to win this one. With a slow smile spreading across his face, he rolled the scroll back up and slid it into a hidden fold of his robes. "Release your tongue, Daisuke-kun, and come on a little walk with me. There are some people who I would love for you to meet."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Hiding his own relief, Haruno Daisuke pulled the hood back over his head and followed as his leader began walking at a sedate pace that belied the actions that his information would soon cause.

He could've chosen the easy way, and regained his honor through death. _But what is honor without family?_ He thought. _Nothing. Nothing at all..._

* * *

A/N: I don't know how to kill of characters yet. Oh well. I bet I had you all a bit confused with the 'gray-eyes' part, but I actually just forgot to include Daisuke's eye color the first few times I mentioned him. You didn't think it was green, did you? And, yet again, another short chapter. Lo siento.


	14. Y e s N o M a y b e S o

So, **nobody suggested a scene for an omake**. Oh well. Still, 100+ reviews is pretty damn nice. Also, I'm glad people like **Saichi/Sai**. I wasn't sure how that would be received, between the way I have him talking and how I kept expecting someone to start ranting at me about chan/yaoi because of the way I wrote the scene last chapter. But I survived, so yay.

After this chapter, please tell me: **is anyone bothered by Daisuke-san?** And, alternately, **is the random Japanese pissing people off?** Cuz I'm sorry but I honestly don't notice it until it gets pointed out to me. Anyways, on with the chapter.

Also... Don't kill me.

* * *

Nadeshiko had experienced far too many shocks within the last few months. Her daughter had suddenly decided to be a shinobi. The child most people in her village considered to be a pariah was the child of a survivor from her beloved original village and probably a very distant cousin. There was a force somewhere in the world that wanted to destroy her entire family and had nearly succeeded. Now, there was a messenger at her door in the middle of the day.

And, under the gazes of many curious onlookers, he was saying that her husband was dead.

"E-excuse me?" Nadeshiko managed to reply, feeling her mind begin to haze over. "I... D-daisuke...?" Even as she stared in to the dark, solemn brown eyes of the chuunin standing in front of her, still holding out that horrible black envelope for her to take, the woman could feel herself becoming faint. "...My Daisuke... Is...?" The redhead could feel her throat beginning to tighten and her eyes starting to sting as she slumped, letting the door frame take most of her weight. "N-no... Y-you're not... _No_..." A low, mournful keening noise from the back of her throat replaced the words as large tears began to spill out of her eyes.

"...Haruno-san? ...Haruno-san...?"

But her world was already falling into gray tones. The words sounded distant and faint in her ears as Nadeshiko tried to ground herself, feeling as if she was both heavier than she'd ever been in her life and floating away like a child's lost balloon. _...My Daisuke-kun...?_

"...Haruno-san...!"

She couldn't breathe. Her throat was too tight. Nadeshiko abandoned her death grip on the door frame in favor of clutching at her neck, trying to open an airway of some sort. Yet, even as she slowly slid down to the tiled floor, choking on nothing but pure grief, the redhead could feel herself stop caring about breathing. He was _gone_. The man she'd loved for seventeen, almost eighteen years was _gone_.

Her world was fading from gray to black. _No, no, no, no, no, no, no..._

...And then she woke up. Seeing the light filtering through the shades on what was obviously her bedroom window, Nadeshiko sat up slowly, feeling hope begin to bloom in her chest. "A dream," she whispered to herself. "Just a dream..." But then she noticed that her throat was sore, and her nose felt stuffed. When she reached up, her cheeks were still wet from tears. When she looked at her hands, she realized that she was still wearing the blouse and pants that she'd adorned in the 'nightmare.'

And there, on her lap, was that black envelope. At the sight of it, the green eyed woman froze, before absolutely _panicking_. She screamed at the top of her lungs, tossing the envelope as far away from her as she could, and nearly fell off the bed in her haste to move away from the paper. She only screamed louder when she felt arms keep her from falling off the bed, and it wasn't helped by the cold rag that landed on her face.

"Will you please _calm down_?"

Nadeshiko froze and became wide-eyed at the calm baritone voice she heard, then almost fell limp as she was carefully lifted bridal style and set down in the center of her messed up cotton sheets. The rag fell off her face with a wet _plop_ sound, and landed on one of her thighs. It was freezing, but she didn't feel it at all. She was still too busy staring at the indifferent face of her husband as he settled her back into the pillows, making her comfortable and acting like she _hadn't_ just been told that he was _dead_.

She didn't notice as she slowly began to hyperventilate, but Daisuke did, and the man quietly swore before gripping both her hands tightly in his own. "Nadeshiko-hime. Shh. Calm down. It's me. I'm here. Shh... You need to breathe, koishii. Breathe. I'm here... Yes. Another deep breath, just like that..." The white-haired man allowed his face to soften as her breathing began to even out. But he couldn't smile. She hadn't had a panic attack in years, and here he was, probably about to cause another.

He'd never deserved her from the start.

After a few minutes, Nadeshiko was finally well enough to whisper, "Daisuke-kun...?"

"Hai, Nadeshiko-hime. I'm alright. I'm _here_," he stressed quietly. Despite his calm face, on the inside, Daisuke was fighting hard not to let the panic well up inside of him. She didn't need to hear the words he was about to say. He should've never come here. She would be better off without him, and certainly without knowing that he was alive. But... _Love makes you stupid_, he thought.

"You're _alive_," she almost whimpered out. She had yet to blink as she stared at his face; it felt as if the moment she blinked, he would disappear, and she would be alone with that _disgusting_ black envelope again. "Then... Why... Why did... A mistake?" Nadeshiko was painfully confused, in addition to being so overwhelmed with joy that she couldn't move as well as five seconds away from panicking and beginning to sob. She hadn't felt so emotionally overwhelmed since she was pregnant with Jinya over a decade ago.

Daisuke's face hardened again, and although he didn't wish to, he gently disentangled their hands. It hurt his soul to hear her whimper when they lost contact. "It wasn't a mistake, Nadeshiko-hime. It was necessary that the people outside see your reaction, because... To the rest of the world, I am dead." He spoke as gently as he possibly could, and still found himself shushing her when the word 'dead' almost made her panic. "I'm _alive_, Nadeshiko-hime. But only to you and Hokage-sama."

"But...!" Nadeshiko found herself wiping quickly at her eyes as she was gently hushed again. _Hokage-sama? Daisuke-kun isn't a shinobi, so why...?_

"Just let me speak, koishii." Kneeling next to the bed, Daisuke took a deep breath, and then interlaced his fingers and rested his forehead there, unable to look at her as he completely broke her trust and her heart. "When we first came here thirteen years ago, you told me, 'I want us to have a civilian family, happy and peaceful.' Your smile then..." He stopped, shivered a bit, and then continued: "I... I also wished for that. We bought a home, decorated, you opened your tea shop and I continued my work... It _was_ peaceful, for a while. But even though we tried so hard to hide your roots," he found himself scowling at the word, "There was someone... A man... Who still found them out."

Nadeshiko's entire body became even more still than before, if possible.

Daisuke squeezed his interlocked fingers tighter together, and continued, "I was very stupid. He gave me an offer. And I said yes. Looking back... If I had thought things through clearly, none of this would have happened. We could've moved to Otafuku Gai. We could've gone to live in Ta no Kuni. We could've stayed here, and asked Hokage-sama for his assistance. And I'm sure that, had I let you know, you would've suggested all of that. But you were so happy..." _Stop trying to save yourself, Daisuke,_ he mentally admonished. "However, I kept it a secret. I played along with Shimura Danzo. And the consequences are still showing themselves today..."

It was hard, forcing himself to remain next to the bed as he slowly related each and every secret he'd been keeping in the past thirteen years. He recanted the dates of every diplomatic mission that had actually been an assignment from Root. He explained every anniversary or birthday or trip to Nami no Kuni that he'd missed when really, he'd been watching from the shadows, gathering information. He told her of the nights when he came home late not from work, but from being trained to use weapons and learn the art of assassination. He gave her the names of those whose blood he had on his hands. And, finally, when he had exhausted every other avenue, he told her of his final shame, and the way that only the kindness of the mother he'd almost helped kill had saved his life in the end.

In his mind, where he kept the mental snapshot of his injured daughter, looking up at him and crying, Daisuke also stored Nadeshiko's teary face as she backed away to the opposite side of the bed, wide-eyed with shock and disbelief. _It's almost like a full collection,_ he thought morbidly as she raised her hands to cover her mouth, as if she felt sick. _If I didn't know that Jinya gets angry long before he becomes sad, I would have an album..._ As it was, he would have to make due with his own pale appearance in the mirror each morning. He didn't think he'd ever be seeing his children again, not up close.

When he couldn't bear to listen to Nadeshiko muffling her own sobs anymore, Daisuke slowly stood, and bowed low to her. "_Shitsureishimashita_. I am below your notice, Nadeshiko-hime, but at the behest of Hokage-sama, please open the envelope and read the contents." With all the willpower he had, he slipped a slim golden band off his finger, and set it on the bedside table. "I love you."

And then he let himself disappear under her gaze, as he'd wished to throughout the entire time that he was talking. He'd had his confession. Now, it was time to atone for his sins fully.

* * *

"Hm... Let's try 'constitutionality,' okay?"

"Con-sti... Consti... Consti-tu... This is hard, Sas'ke-san."

The younger boy just huffed and replied, "My aniki says 'practice makes perfect,' so you have to keep practicing! Come _on,_ Saichi, it'll be easy when you get it!"

As Sai scrunched up his nose but consented and began to try and say the word again, with no pauses between syllables, Sakura was gratified to feel herself smiling. Whereas Naruto stayed pressed close to her whenever Sai was with them, Sasuke had taken to the other dark-haired boy like a duck to water. After being the 'baby' of their little group for so long, he'd easily picked up on the fact that they treated Sai the same way, and seemed to think it was his duty to be a proper 'big brother' to the other boy (_even though Sai was, age-wise, the oldest of the four of them_.) It was ridiculously cute, not to mention amusing, and that was exactly what Sakura needed.

Ever since she'd returned home to the message that her father was dead, the world had felt... Fake. Even though she knew that everything was real and that, as of that moment, her father would never be coming back, she seemed to be in denial. She'd _seen_ him chained up, after admitting everything that he'd done and helped with to her grandmother. She'd known that he was as good as dead for nearly a week before the actual message came. She'd cried out all the tears for him that she had, and probably more than that.

Yet she couldn't seem to comprehend that he was never coming back.

Sakura had yet to see Jinya react, not really. She suspected that he'd used the 'pillow' method more than a few times, and besides an increase in the amount of time that Jinya spent at home, cleaning up and trying to assist their mother, he hadn't seemed to change. But he still had moments were he stilled and stared off into space, or at the door, or at the chair where nobody had sat for breakfast since before they left to Nami. She knew that her brother was grieving in his own way, even if he was trying to seem strong.

And her mother... Sakura truly worried about her mother. More than once, she'd gone into the kitchen or the living room to see Nadeshiko rolling her father's wedding band around in her palm or tracing her finger along the edges of framed photos, brushing away imaginary dust. Her mother's smile, one of her defining traits, had disappeared. Although the woman tried to put on smiles for her children, they were forced, and as soon as she thought she was alone, her face became as blank as porcelain. The transformation was bone chilling.

"...Consti-tution-ali-ty."

Her mind flew back to reality as Sasuke suddenly began cheering and Sai plopped down into the grass next to her, smiling in a relieved-looking way. "I think Sas'ke-san is happy that I almost did it," Sai told her. Then he tilted his head to the side, thoughtful. "He is strange."

"Hey!"

Sakura couldn't restrain the bit of laughter that left her mouth as Sasuke began to protest. Sai calling _anyone_ strange was an amusing thing, although privately, she couldn't help but agree. She'd never really reconciled the Sasuke of her future to the one in this past. It was more like they were two different people, and one of them hadn't been created until his family had been killed.

As she joined in with teasing Sasuke, Sakura suddenly realized that Naruto had never returned from going inside the house to use the bathroom quite some time ago. For a moment, she was worried, but then she remembered his strange expression when he insisted that he had to go. _He probably drank expired milk again, _she thought, feeling bad for finding the thought amusing. _That's just like him..._

In truth, just as Sakura was thinking that, Naruto was doing something completely different. Inside the Uchiha main house, sitting nervously at the kitchen table, the blonde was currently doing something that one might regard as a huge accomplishment for him: he was speaking to Mikoto-san of his own volition.

Originally, on New Year's day, Naruto had saved up all his extra money and won a pair of red goggles for Sakura that were just like his, since she looked at his a lot and didn't really like having her hair hanging in her face (_he didn't really understand why she couldn't just clip it to the side or something._) But he'd forgotten his present at the ANBU dormitories in his haste to see her, and when they finally did meet, she'd given him a present so much _greater_ that his goggles definitely weren't enough. And then her father died and he wanted to make her happy again even more.

He'd tried asking Inu what to get her to make it a better present, but the ANBU captain had just started making weird jokes about him being 'whipped,' which didn't sound like anything remotely similar to a cool present for Sakura. He'd also gone to Crow for advice, which had been only marginally better: 'ask a female.' However, he only really knew four females (_the secretary lady in the Tower didn't count_.)

One of them was Sakura, who he obviously couldn't ask. Then there was Neko, who was either taking a break or off on a mission somewhere, and couldn't be questioned. The next was Sakura's really nice mother, Nadeshiko-san, but she was very sad because Sakura's father had died, and even if she hadn't been sad, Sakura had a habit of eavesdropping on conversations and would've found out before he even got the gift together. With those three knocked out, there was only Mikoto-san left.

So he'd worked up his courage, made an excuse while Sakura was distracted, and went inside the house to try and explain what he needed.

"...and, um, I still don't know what my okaasan looked like, but now I know her name, Kushina, and I know about Uzushiogakure, and I have all these little scrolls that tell me a bit about what my family was like when they were still alive, and, well, it's really all because Sakura-chan decided to be my friend and she wasn't scared of me or nothin' and I really really really want to give her a nice present to say thank you and I already have these goggles but it's kinda not enough because her gift was so much better and I really want to make her happy too because her otousan died, and, um, can you please tell me what would be a good present for Sakura-chan and help me pick one?"

After listening to Naruto's long, nervous, disjointed rant, Mikoto was experiencing several conflicting emotions and responses to those emotions.

She was happy; she wanted to squeal and hug the little blonde boy, because he was _cute_ and _tiny_ and _sweet_ and he was picking out a _present_ for his _friend... _But she also wanted to put on a dry expression and go find all the people he'd asked for assistance before, who couldn't put in the tiny bit of effort it would take to help the child... And she felt a large swell of gratitude towards Naruto, because he'd obviously put a lot of courage and trust into coming to her for help at all, which she really deserved after the way she'd treated him... And she was _angry_ and _ashamed_ and wanting desperately to take it out on someone.

Mikoto shelved the last one quickly in the back of her mind, and worked through her thoughts, looking at the reasons and the reactions before choosing the emotion she wanted to present. After a process of elimination, she decided that gratitude and happiness were the best for the moment, especially since they gave her the chance to be helpful to Naruto as well.

So, only a few seconds after the whiskered six year old finished speaking, Mikoto widened her already-present smile and clapped her hands together. "Of course, Uzumaki-kun! These goggles are such a pretty red color; I think I saw something that would go with them perfectly in the market, which would definitely be a great gift for you to give Sakura-chan. If you can buy two pretty red ribbons and bring them to me, I'll get the rest of the present for you to give her. Is that alright?"

Naruto beamed at her in a way that was usually reserved for Inu or Crow, and nodded enthusiastically. "Arigatou gozaimasu, Mikoto-san!"

"No problem, Uzumaki-kun. Now, why don't you go back outside and play with the others? I'm sure that your snacks will be ready for everyone soon enough."

"Hai!"

She watched him run back out the house, vaguely wondering how she'd ended up being some kind of after-school caretaker for the group of children, and then went back to fixing the simple dishes she'd chosen to make that day. As she fell into a rhythm of chopping, mixing, and rolling, Mikoto allowed herself to take her anger and shame back to the forefront of her mind.

_...Kushina..._

* * *

With the exception of his younger brother, who he freely admitted to spoiling, Itachi had never actually comforted a single person in his life. He'd seen plenty of emotionally distraught people, of course, but the truth of the matter was that he did his best to edge away from them and let them work whatever troubled them out on their own. He dealt in matters of the mind, not the heart.

For the past few days, however, he'd found himself at a loss. Jinya did an admirable job of acting like everything was normal in his life, but the smiles Itachi had gotten used to were few and far between, his usually astonishing appetite for sweets had all but disappeared, and their meals together lacked the characteristic trade of quips and short stories that used to be commonplace. Itachi usually preferred silence over noise, but this quiet disturbed him.

Truthfully, Itachi didn't know why he still met with the other boy. He'd stopped looking for information about the younger Haruno sibling ages ago, especially after conversing with her several times and coming to the conclusion that she was, without doubt, a very talented child... And nothing more. The free lunches and treats also weren't enough to entice him, since his ANBU pay alone was enough to buy out any of the places they frequented, even without digging into the Uchiha bank account that he had unrestricted access to. So... What was keeping him here?

All he had to do was stop showing up to lunch, really. Then he wouldn't have to deal with awkward silences or trying to figure out how to make someone feel better when he'd obviously never dealt with similar feelings in his life. The problem was that he didn't particularly want to stop showing up. It was nice to just sit around, eating cheap food and not worrying about how he looked to the people around him. The meetings were just relaxing, most of the time.

Having established that he didn't want to stop showing up, Itachi was back to his original dilemma: how could he help Jinya? _...This is aggravating,_ he found himself thinking, roughly skewering a piece of beef as he did so.

Sitting across from him in the barbecue place, Jinya found himself feeling slightly amused as his eating partner seemed to glare at nothing, destroying his meat more than eating it. "You know, you don't have to try and think of something to say. I'll be fine..." His smile faded. "The world just doesn't feel very real right now." And then, like a light flickering back to life, he smiled at Itachi again. "Maybe we should spar sometime, ne?"

"Spar?" Itachi couldn't keep the confusion out of his voice at the sudden subject change. But it was also a bit comforting to hear something more similar to their normal conversation. "Why spar?"

"Well, I think you'd have to agree, nothing says 'this is real' like a nice dose of ass-whooping."

The Uchiha heir raised an eyebrow, but nodded, privately amused. _I suppose he really will be fine, if he can be cheerful about getting an 'ass-whooping'..._

* * *

Thirty year old Yamanaka Inoichi had been the Head of the ANBU Intelligence Specialists as well as Konoha's Torture and Interrogation Division for nearly nine years. In that time, he had interrogated people from almost every shinobi village currently known and some that likely didn't exist anymore. The sheer amount of information Inoichi had gathered and memorized since becoming a jounin made him one of the most prized and most dangerous people in all of Konoha, if not all of the elemental countries. He knew everything from the names to the shoe sizes of thousands of people that he would likely never meet in his life; however, should he ever have the desire to do so, he could destroy every last one of their lives with just a few messages to the right people and not an ounce of blood spilt. While his jobs could never be described as _pleasant_ in any facet, Inoichi wouldn't choose any other profession, because he'd come to love having that kind and amount of knowledge far too much.

In the last three months, however, Inoichi had begun to consider that perhaps, when he'd been offered the chance a year ago, he should've retired and returned to regular jounin missions. Despite the numerous plots he'd foiled and counter-intelligence he'd sowed in many different countries, the man had quickly come to the conclusion that the case a very select few in his department had most recently taken over was the most momentous that he'd ever been assigned in his life, which truly said something.

It had started a little over a week after New Year's day, when Inoichi and his apprentice, Morino Ibiki, had been called to the Hokage's office early on in the morning. They, along with Nara Shikaku, Yamashiro Aoba, and an ANBU known only as Wolf were then taken out of the actual office and into a small, private room literally crawling with what he'd recognized as security seals of every type.

The tension levels had skyrocketed as the door closed and the silence was finally broken by the Hokage, who only gave them one cryptic sentence: "Spread out your senses as strongly and far reaching as you can."

Intrigued, each of them had done so. Inoichi had found himself fighting to keep from shivering as he felt not only the different chakra types of the four who'd been ordered to expand their senses, but also the dense, heavy chakra of the Sandaime, who usually kept his energies completely hidden. Still, their searches had turned up fruitless, and he was the next to break the silence as he spoke, "There is nothing here, Hokage-sama."

"If I were to rely on my senses, I would believe the same," Hiruzen had replied lowly with a decidedly odd smile on his aged face, as if he were both pleased and disturbed. "Kindly reveal yourself to us, Daisuke-kun."

The words had seemed strange, just until a man appeared right between the five men and the Sandaime. There was no release of chakra, no smoke, no shift in the air around them, not a single _sound_. He was just _there_, and if Inoichi was correct, he had been standing in the same exact spot since they'd entered the room. And it wasn't as if he'd been hiding in shadows, either; the man had catlike gray eyes, hair that was possibly whiter than fresh snow, and he was dressed in a white t-shirt, blue sweat pants, and clunky looking brown boots. Honestly, he stuck out like a sore thumb once visible.

It was one of the scariest moments in Inoichi's life, barring the night of the Kyuubi attack and the day his daughter was born.

After all of his soldiers had collected themselves (_Inoichi had been the only one not to draw a kunai at the sight of the man_), the Hokage had further introduced the new person. "Gentlemen, I would like you to meet Haruno Daisuke. You may know him as one of Konoha's regular political delegates. You may also know him as a civilian council member. Or perhaps, if you heard the recent news, a dead man. From now on, however, none of that matters; you will know him only as Ghost, reconnaissance and infiltration specialist, personal soldier of Sarutobi Hiruzen... And former member of the organization known as Root." The Hokage's smile had become grim and slightly sadistic at the automatic shifts in the men's stances. "Also known as your teammate and informant for this SS-Rank Operation, codename Rabbit Hole."

And with those words, Inoichi had been drafted onto the riskiest mission of his life: the complete sabotage of Shimura Danzo and his entire Root division of ANBU. If he hadn't been clued into the danger by the double 'S' ranking of the mission, then he would've eventually guessed just by analyzing his team members for the operation.

Morino Ibiki, tokubetsu jounin at age twenty three, had been his apprentice in the art of Interrogation for two years. He was a genjutsu specialist with a rock hard demeanor and a level of pain tolerance that would allow him to ignore any wound up until a fatal injury, even with the addition of salt or acid to the flesh. Ibiki was in line to be the top interrogation specialist in Konoha's forces for his ability with making the enemy give up information.

Similar to Ibiki, Yamashiro Aoba was an information gathering specialist. The twenty-six year old jounin was mainly a reconnaissance-type, but his true addition to the team was a jutsu he'd developed himself which allowed him to project his consciousness into the actual brains of other people, where he gathered information by stimulating the neurons in different sections of the brain with his chakra and interpreting the electromagnetic waves into usable information. He was still perfecting the technique after seven years, but it was already classified as a kinjutsu.

The Wolf masked ANBU, codename 'Unabara,' was well-known to Inoichi. Unabara was usually one of the watchers on Uzumaki duty, and unlike others on the team who focused on the boy's protection, Wolf watched for the more hidden threats, and only stepped in if absolutely necessary. He was the one that stopped many assassination attempts before they actually went into motion, simply by following patterns of body language in the people around Naruto and using subtle illusion techniques as well as hypnosis to bring them in for questioning. He had a ninety-eight percent success rate in judging the intentions and reactions of others.

Nara Shikaku, who was also on of Inoichi's regular jounin teammates, was both a combat specialist and a master tactician. Unlike the others on the team, he was considered the 'heavy-hitter.' He analyzed the information that they gathered, searched through it with a fine-toothed comb for any discrepancies, and then used that information to create tactics to interrogate, suborn, apprehend or dispose of targets. Every plan he made had at least four different back-ups. Of course, most of his tactics were created in concert with the final member of their team.

Haruno Daisuke, or Ghost, was a stealth and infiltration specialist. Even without the haunted look in his eyes, his codename fit. Although he had the chakra levels of an academy student and the physical strength of _maybe_ a strong genin, the man honestly lived up to the original ideals of the word 'shinobi.' Unless he wished it so, he was not seen, nor sensed, nor heard. He could be walking down an empty street in broad daylight, but nobody would see him if he didn't want them to. And it wasn't a jutsu, either; he simply moved and breathed in a certain way that made his presence disappear.

The man also carried around metric tons of hidden information, just the way that Inoichi did. Often, it seemed as if he'd picked his data straight from the brain of Danzo himself. What was more likely, however, was that he'd gotten the information from _other_ Root members before coming to Konoha. After all, information wasn't the only thing Ghost brought to the team.

The operation wouldn't be possible at all if he didn't have the scroll with the key to Danzo's security seal on it. The man had already confirmed that he wasn't the person who'd created the release seal, nor did he even know anything about seals. But apparently, part of the price for the information he was giving was that the originator of the seal and the person who'd made the mission possible would remain anonymous and uninvolved.

Reading over some of the things they'd discovered, Inoichi thought that it was a smart idea. _He_ would like to remain anonymous and uninvolved for as long as possible as well. One sentence of the information he carried was enough to have his young daughter killed and his entire clan decimated if it got out that he was involved. Nobody on their team needed any motivation to keep everything they were doing close to their chests.

If their security was pierced, their hearts would soon follow.

_This will be a very long year..._

* * *

A/N: Well, it's **long** again! So yay. And now you see why I'm asking about people's opinions on **Daisuke**. I usually hate OCs, but I kinda need plot developers, so I'm trying not to make them... Iunno... Irritating as fuck. Also, **can you spot the similarities both Sakura and Jinya have with their father?** Tell me what you think!


	15. D o m i n o s A r e T o p p l i n g

Props to **Sirena-Lune** for making my day with an excessively long review that made me squeal like a fangirl.

Does this count as a late chapter for me? Speaking of which: **Maxmoquito**, this is your chapter! Here we go.

* * *

At the empty junction where Grass, Waterfall and Fire Country all shared a single border, Nara Shikaku lay between two large trees with several bushes concealing his body, staring up at the starlit sky and trying not to think of anything. His attempt was failing, of course; trying to keep himself from thinking was like trying to keep his wife from being strict. It simply went against the natural order of things.

Still, not for the first time in the past several months, he dearly wished that he could. He had a painful headache at the moment, and he was sure it would only get worse when he finally got off his ass and began preliminary questioning of the bound seven year old that was squirming around pitifully to his left. Shikaku did not _want_ to question a seven year old. He wished that he did not _need_ to question a seven year old. He had his own almost-seven year old, and there needn't be any other similarities between the children for him to see Shikamaru in the little girl's face.

However, this was not something he could avoid, because this seven year old girl was one of Danzo's top child-spies. Supposedly, her name was Sasaki Rikka. There was no way to truly know because she lived under the cover of a wandering orphan, and her brown hair and hazel eyes could belong to any number of families both in and out of the region. Of course, that was likely the reason that Danzo had chosen her for this specific position; just one more orphan in the years after several conflicts wouldn't be questioned, especially since she had no distinct features.

The girl couldn't even fight properly beyond the most basic of taijutsu and the extremely clever usage of layered illsuions and replacement techniques. Admittedly, it would've been enough if he hadn't been looking specifically for her, knowing that he was dealing with something other than a normal child. If Shikaku didn't know who she was, he would've been fooled; the girl was stick thin, dirty, smelly, malnourished, and cursed like a sailor. After all, nobody would expect a young orphan girl to know how to fight, just as they wouldn't expect her to be well-fed or regularly cleaned or able to speak in any sophisticated way.

The man was fairly sure that rather than preparing the child for her role, Danzo had simply given the girl a seal, some orders, and a set of codes in order for her to make contact with other spies and relay information, before tossing her onto the streets. And if his experience with eleven other Root agents proved true, as he was sure it would, Rikka wouldn't find a single thing wrong with that.

He supposed that was the reason why, even though he loathed to interrogate a child, he had accepted the mission to come out and search the border for this one. It would soothe him some to know that he could interrogate her without actually invading her mind or using some form of hypnosis, and then bring her uninjured and unchanged to Konoha, where the ANBU deprogrammers could give her some semblance of a personality and the future of any other child.

_Daisuke could've done it too,_ Shikaku thought to himself, shifting away as the bound child kicked out at him despite the ropes on her ankles. _Or Ghost, as we should be calling him. And yet..._ The fact of the matter was that no matter how much he hated this assignment, at the end, he would be able to go home and see Shikamaru and know that _his_ child was okay and _his_ child wasn't a robot and _his_ child would never be one. Daisuke didn't have that, and it was a mutual decision for the others involved in 'Operation Rabbit Hole' not to put him in any situations where the already broken man might fracture further.

True, Ghost did an admirable job of acting normal, but months on end of working with the white-haired man had taught them all that no matter how calm he might look on the outside, his emotions could be absolutely raging at any time. If the man's poker face wasn't so impenetrable, one might call him bipolar. His abilities and his emotions were a very scary mix for anyone on the receiving end of them, so they saved it for the adults and those who, unlike little Rikka, were unable to be brought back and deprogrammed and given new identities. People who wouldn't be damaged further before they could come back and get fixed...

The child bound next to him finally stopped moving around, having tired herself out, and Shikaku sighed before finally sitting up. The girl was glaring at him, but even with the knowledge of what was about to happen, tears didn't appear in her eyes. _Yeah, the deprogrammers are gonna have a great time with you, kid..._ He stifled those thoughts as he began the tiring process of unsealing her tongue without being bitten.

He couldn't imagine how he would feel if it were his Shikamaru that needed to be brought to such a place.

* * *

It was two months before her seventh and twenty-third birthday, but Sakura felt as if she were a baby all over again. It was mostly due to that strange sensation she had of everywhere being a new place and every thing she encountered being an unknown. Sometimes it was hard to remind herself that it was _her past_ that she was changing.

But perhaps, that was why she felt that way: it was her past, that she was _changing_. Perhaps it was a good idea that the whole world seemed so very unfamiliar to her, even though she'd 'been here and done that' already. If things were familiar to her, she wouldn't be doing a very good job of _changing_ the future, now would she? Still... It was a very strange thing to observe, having the knowledge that she did.

Just looking in the mirror was a prime example of all the changes that her different words, actions and expressions had created. In her memories, she had spent the years between age four and age seven with a curtain of pink hair hiding her face from the world and a wardrobe of tiny, plain clothes that she'd used in an attempt to remain unnoticed by the world.

Today, the six year old Sakura stood with her hair parted messily on either side of her face, lopsided pigtails over her shoulders, and a pair of glaringly bright red goggles on her forehead, exposing her round face to the world. In another time and place, she would've called herself ugly and hid all the accessories holding her hair from her face somewhere that the sun couldn't find them. Here, however...

Here, she was amazingly touched. Sakura had received many gifts in her life, both as a child and as a grown woman, but she couldn't recall any that she could so clearly point out the depth of meaning behind. _Naruto_ had given her _goggles_. While it might seem inconsequential to anyone else, she knew that the goggles the boy already owned were something he considered a show of affection towards him and a way to separate himself from everyone else in the crowd. By giving her a pair of goggles, it was a physical representation of the fact that he cared about _her_ and he didn't mind it if she stood out right along with him.

Of course, she was sure that the other six year old hadn't put such deep thought into it. Most likely, he had seen that she liked his and decided to get some for her as well. The other part of his little gift, however, had added a special touch; while the swirling orange patches that she now wore on the sleeves of her yellow shirt were common in Konoha, coming from Naruto, she knew that they were a lot more. It was as if she'd practically been made into a member of his family, because even if others had long since forgotten the meaning behind them, _she_ knew that she was wearing the symbol of Uzu, a place that Naruto had begun to see as his true roots.

"...puh-leeeeeaaase?" And even if Sasuke did manage to plead his way into getting goggles for himself and Sai (_which would practically make them into the Konohamaru Corps Reborn, she thought with amusement_), it wouldn't take away the real meaning behind her gift.

"Baka!" Came Naruto's retort, even as the blonde boy blushed red. "I keep telling you, it was a _gift_ for _Sakura!_ Why would I give you some? They're hers! And Sai's head is all peanut-shaped, so they would just fall off of him!"

_The more comfortable he gets, the funnier he becomes_, Sakura thought, hiding a snort as Sai latched onto Naruto from behind, sending him off on a tangent about 'touchy-feely whiny black-haired kids.' _I wish I had the courage to laugh with him before, instead of laughing at him. It would've been a lot of fun._

"Sakura-chan, tell Naruto-baka that you don't mind if I get goggles because I want them and you're nice so you wouldn't care if I got them and wore goggles too and got some for Sai because Sai would be left out and we can't leave him out because we have to _take care_ of him!" Sasuke pleaded, turning to her instead with large black eyes and nimbly avoiding it as Naruto landed in the grass where he'd been a second ago, wrestling with Sai.

"Mou... But I kinda like having the goggles all on my own," Sakura replied with a sly smile to the boy. He reacted just as she predicted that he would; a large pout formed and his cheeks reddened, right before an explosion of strung-together words that would, in the end, amount to another '_please_' came flying out.

"Ah, wait!"

The sudden cry from Naruto drew both children's attention back behind them, where they found Sai being held from putting down his foot. The whiskered boy shifted Sai to the side and crouched, before gently scooping what appeared to be a small beetle into his hands.

Before Sakura could ask exactly what he was going to do with the bug, Naruto all but shot to the trees nearby the clearing where they were all playing, revealing a small boy that the pink haired girl instantly recognized standing there. Even a this young age, Shino was distinctive with his large coat and dark sunglasses. However, he didn't exude the air of calm-collectedness that everyone had come to associate with him in the future; although silent, this Shino was still inexperienced and going through all the playground trials and tribulations of the other kids their age.

In front of Shino, Naruto silently thrust his hands forward, waiting for the small beetle to be taken. He recognized the shiny blue shell that it had, just as he recognized Shino, a boy who had never shied away from him over time, yet remained very quiet no matter who was around when they ran into each other. The blonde thought Shino was a cool kid, especially with his glasses; _weird_, definitely, but pretty cool.

Shino's pale hands left the wide sleeves of his coat just long enough for him to gently scoop up the insect, before disappearing again. The child gave a silent nod to Naruto, before preparing to back away and leave.

"Hello, my name is Tou-ken Sai-chi. I am six. Do you want to play tag? I promise I won't squish your bugs." In the time it had taken for the small exchange to be completed, Sai had sidled up to the other two boys and decided to do what he usually did; introduce himself. Ever since he had started introducing himself the way his cousin Sakura told him to, he'd begun to make many new friends. Sai had long since decided that he very much enjoyed making new friends. They were interesting.

Shino seemed startled by the request, especially as Sasuke jogged over and began to ask for him to play as well. Sasuke had gone from a spoiled, introverted child to a spoiled and _extroverted_ child in the time since he met Sakura and Naruto. It had a lot to do with him realizing that people outside his clan weren't the aliens his many relatives seemed to treat them as, but it was also due to his father. He hadn't spoken to his father once since the year before, and in the meantime, he had actively sought to go against everything his father had taught him and repeated so often. It wasn't as if he would follow around someone that didn't want him to have friends, after all.

As Shino was slowly being overwhelmed by the combined pleading of Naruto, Sasuke and Sai, Sakura continued to stand back, struggling to contain emotions that she'd never actually gotten over. It wasn't as hard as it could be, since she'd gotten very used to revising her own opinions in the past few months, but it was still a lot harder than some things.

For a long time, she'd absolutely _loathed_ Shino. It wasn't the irritation she felt for Naruto back then, or the fierce desire to be _on top_ that she'd faced with Ino when they were competing for Sasuke's affections, but actual malice. And truthfully, it had nothing to do with Shino; rather, it was Shino's older sister Suzumushi that had created the dark feelings within her. Aburame Suzumushi was Jinya's _other_ teammate, and in the past, she was the weak link that had caused her brother's death.

Sakura couldn't even remember the exact details of how the girl's information had caused Jin's team to fail their mission so horridly, but she could vividly remember that for years, her automatic reaction to the name 'Aburame' had been to tighten her lips and move as far away as possible. For the most part, her feelings had been hidden; the other girls moved away from Shino too, because he was admittedly rather creepy and his body was full of bugs. But she got the feeling that Shino had still known about it, because even when he'd remained as passive around her as always, she could _feel_ his stare.

_Still,_ she thought, forcing herself to smile as Shino finally relented and came over, _That didn't happen this time around, and if things go my way, it simply won't. And even so... Hating Shino so blindly for a fault that wasn't his is the same mistake that so many villagers make with Naruto now. How could I condone it?_ As she joined the boys in chasing each other around the field, her smile became a bit more natural. _There's no reason for me to hate Shino. Besides... Change is the name of the game, isn't it? What's another, after creating so many differences...?_

* * *

Yagare Etsuko had lived in Konoha for all the thirty-two years of her life, and she'd observed a great many things. From the very first mass-production of sealing tags in the Elemental Countries when she was a toddler to the development of medical techniques that could actually restore a paralysis victim to full health, she had been there to sit back and see the effects and the slowly increasing changes that they had on the lives of those in Konoha.

As a child, the brown-haired woman had wished to become a shinobi and develop things herself, yet had also been frightened away from that life. Her older sister, Naomi, had gone to the Academy during wartime and graduated at the age of ten. Naomi became the source of much attention and admiration from those within her family. Etsuko had wanted to have that kind of admiration turned towards _her_, but she found herself wavering on the decision of going to the Academy. Did she _really_ want to be a shinobi? Maybe it would be better if she wasn't... Although being a shinobi _did_ seem really cool... But her mind was never made up. So she never did go.

Instead, she sat back and watched as her sister took missions that were more like chores, then began delivering messages, and soon began participating in skirmishes inside the border, all within the first four months after she'd become a shinobi. Etsuko had also been there when, during the fifth month, Naomi was returned home in little more than pieces and bloodied strips of cloth after an Iwa ambush.

Since then, she had always been a silent advocate for the right of the children within Konoha to actually have _childhoods_. It had been devastating for her to lose her sister, best friend, and role model all at once, and the thought of it happening to anyone else was horrifying. She had a deep desire to make real _changes_ to the system. Although that desire eventually led to her position on the Civilian council of Konoha, Etsuko was ashamed to say that she'd never truly made a difference. It was too ingrained in to sit back and observe rather than act, and she didn't want to start any conflicts with others by putting forth new ideas. She was just a _civilian_, after all.

Honestly, she could've decided to become a shinobi anyways, but the lifestyle was too harsh for her. She reveled in remaining calm and approachable, watching the world around her without rocking any boats. A life of being ordered around by superior after superior could never appeal to her, not when she put serious thought into it. Luckily, even though this very demeanor kept her from reaching her desires on her own, it left her open for others to look towards her for support. And as it happened, she wasn't the only one who wished for some things in Konoha to _change_.

Today, Nara Yoshino had her backing.

"...were war-time measures. The Third Great Shinobi War, the Kumogakure conflict, and the Kyuubi attack each forced us to continue basing graduation around the few skills necessary for genin field operations, and as a result, we have allowed our children to graduate as young as five years old from the Academy. While some of these cases have proven beneficial to Konoha, as in the circumstances of Kakashi-san," the aforementioned paused in her speech to nod a head towards the seat where Kakashi sat in regular jounin uniform, trying not to look bored, "as well as other notable cases, including that of the Sannin, Maito Gai, and more recently Uchiha Itachi, these are only a small number of the graduates we've had over the years. If children were truly meant to be on the battlefield, then the hundreds of other graduates who also entered our forces from each of their classes would not have their names decorating the memorial stone right now."

Even as Yoshino took her seat again and the room erupted in murmurs as the topic was discussed, Sarutobi knew exactly how the council would be voting on this decision. Out of the eight major clans that tended to set the tone for the rest of the shinobi council, _all_ of them had heirs that would be entering the shinobi Academy within the next year or so, and after such a compelling argument, they no doubt wanted to have as much time as possible to train their children so that they wouldn't die before making chuunin. The rest of the shinobi council would follow the clan votes with little dissension, and the civilian council would vote with the majority of the shinobi council on this matter since it involved their children who might wish to join the profession as well.

_Naruto will be disappointed when he hears about this,_ Sarutobi thought. The seven year old orphan had been dead set on becoming a shinobi as soon as possible for longer than the Sandaime could remember. It was to be expected, of course; he'd been living in the ANBU dormitories since before he could talk properly, and the life of a shinobi was the only one the blonde had really been exposed to. _Although there was that brief stint of time when he was determined to be a ramen chef..._

When the motion was finally put to vote, everything went exactly as Sarutobi had expected it to, and he found that Yoshino had been kind enough to already begin drafting the paperwork for the legislation that set a new minimum graduation age, that being eleven years old. Unfortunately, he would soon need to go over every other kind of paperwork that involved the Academy as well, since the budgets would have to be increased for larger classes and he would likely need to choose new instructors. Not to mention that the amount of D-rank missions Konoha did would have to go at a far slower pace, now that there wouldn't be a fresh selection of young, inexperienced genin teams every six months.

_Headaches, headaches,_ the man thought, already imagining his desk covered in paperwork as the meeting finally drew to an end. He watched Danzo amble out of the room with Koharu and Homura on his heels, and thought, _The operation has been moving rather steadily for the past three months, but that's only been the bare beginning. There are so many of them that I never would've expected._ Unbidden, Sarutobi's gaze moved to a darkened corner of the room, where he knew a Tori masked ANBU member stood on the ceiling. _I'll have to get rid of 'Waraki' sooner or later. I have enough headaches as it is without being spied on directly..._

Finally, his gaze turned forward, and he almost sighed aloud. _Headaches indeed._ "How may I help you?" _I'm not going to like this. That expression, like a shark that's found its' prey, always heralds something unpleasant for the one it's turned on..._

"I'd like to speak to you privately, Hokage-sama." The subtle inflection on the word 'privately' put him on alert, but he didn't show it.

Instead, Sarutobi smiled. "Of course, of course, Mikoto-chan. Let us head right this way. There is a room nearby where we'll be able to converse freely. Tell me, how is little Sasuke-chan doing recently? Well, I presume?"

"Hai, of course. He's a very smart little boy..."

After five council sessions during which Uchiha Mikoto had taken over for her husband Fugaku, who was unable to talk due to a broken jaw, almost every member of Konoha's shinobi and civilian ruling factions had come to know that calm, unwavering smile of hers quite intimately. While irritating, Fugaku was a power that everyone on the council knew how to predict after so many years. Most people, knowing Mikoto as the humble housewife and loving mother that she'd always been seen as in the past decade or so, had simply expected her to take Fugaku's place and spout off the same demands and ideals, if in a politer tone.

The first time she walked into the council room, however, Sarutobi had seen past her long dress and weaponless form and remembered the fierce front-line combat specialist that had only been removed from bingo books throughout the Elemental Countries in the past five years, when the birth of her second child seemed to imply to the world that she wouldn't be returning to any conflicts. It only took a single session for the rest of the council to realize that they weren't dealing with what they'd been expecting, but several more had to pass before others began to discard the almost civilian-like view of her that they'd taken.

Mikoto was an unknown quantity, and would likely be remaining that way for quite some time.

_Unknown quantities cause headaches,_ Sarutobi thought with another mental sigh as they finally entered the secure room and he could no longer stall the woman with an ambling walk and pleasant conversation. "Well, it's been quite some time since we've had a private talk, hasn't it, Mikoto-chan?"

"Indeed, Hokage-sama," the obsidian-eyed woman replied, smiling. Her smile only widened as she continued, "It's actually about the very same topic as several years ago, during the last of our meetings."

The Sandaime stiffened. "Oh? You have more concerns about Uzumaki Naruto-kun? I thought that you'd agreed to lay them to rest when I provided you with his birth records." Those records had been forged, of course, but they were enough for the majority of the people asking, who didn't quite want the child to have a real claim to any of Konoha's former heroes anyways. Sarutobi was content to say that Uzumaki Kushina and her redhead daughter, Miyako, had both failed to survive an early birth forced on by the Kyuubi attack.

Misdirection was the name of the game. So the Kyuubi jinchuuriki had been given the surname Uzumaki: 'The first Kyuubi jinchuuriki had been an Uzumaki as well, why not pass down the legacy to an orphan with no other roots?' And yes, the boy was quite blonde. 'But Namikaze Minato was sterile, and here are the hospital records to prove it.' Paperwork could say practically anything, and the Hokage could get his hands on all of it.

Across from him, Mikoto made a noncommittal noise from the back of her throat, and then, with no warning, her smile became absolutely icy and the air in the room turned heavy even without the release of any killing intent. "Hokage-sama, I understand that as a shinobi of very advanced age, hiding the truth has become quite second nature to you. Indeed, I find myself with the same habits after my childhood. However, when it comes to the close friends and comrades of a loyal soldier and matriarch to the largest clan in your village, do you not believe that the truth may be wiser? I will allow you to give me an answer again. What happened to the _male son_ of Uzumaki Kushina?"

_What did she find out?_ He immediately wondered, stiffening. "As I have told you countless times, Mikoto-chan, Kushina was pregnant with a baby girl, and they did not survive the attack on that night five years ago."

When her smile completely disappeared, the man knew that he'd somehow been caught out. "Hokage-sama, I believe I will share with you a few things that I have kept close to my heart for quite some time and tried to deny for my own peace of mind. Firstly, Kushina and I were close comrades for nearly seven years. We fought together. We slept together. We ate together. We lived out a year in an Iwagakure trench together. She was in the room when I gave birth to my oldest son. _I know Kushina_."

_This is not good,_ Sarutobi found himself thinking.

"Second," Mikoto continued, "While Kushina tried to remain as tough as a woman could possibly be, she was also very much a _woman_. She found out the gender of her baby as soon as possible. I could never recall what she wished to name her child, but I knew it was a boy's name. I knew this because we were pregnant at the same time, and the very day that the Kyuubi attacked, we discussed that our _boys_ would be in the same Academy class. She had hoped that they would be friends..." The woman felt her throat clog a bit, and forcibly pushed past it. This was _not_ the time to show any sort of weakness.

"My third point is a more _physical_ type of evidence." From a pocket in her dress, Mikoto removed a small scroll. It had taken almost a month of coaxing just to convince Naruto to let her see it, and much longer to get the child to put a bit of his blood on the very specific looking seal that held it closed, but she finally had it. "I know that you recognize this seal. And I also know that you remember how one such seal must be opened."

"Where did you get that from?" Sarutobi demanded out of turn, eyes wide as he looked at the small scroll, which explained several sealing concepts which most people believed to be lost in time. "This knowledge is invaluable..." He found the scroll suddenly missing from his hands. "Mikoto!"

"_Hokage-sama_." She was smiling again, and it was the most wicked smile he'd ever seen in his life. "This doesn't belong to you, I'm afraid. I think you've realized by now exactly who it belongs to, and, in fact, exactly the person who opened it in the first place." Without further ado, the woman snapped the scroll closed and applied chakra to reactivate the seal, which would once again need to be opened with Naruto's blood. "And if that wasn't enough proof for you that your subterfuge has failed, I will tell you this: not only do I know Kushina, but as an Uchiha, I know the Uzumaki."

_She can't possibly mean...?_

His expression had the Uchiha matriarch nodding. "Indeed. They were famed for their sealing techniques and their extremely long lives, and Kushina was sent here because she was, for her generation, the very strongest of them. I remember that special chakra that she had quite intimately. It's saved my life more than a few times. Kushina was possibly the hardest person to kill in all the Elemental Countries... But I know that she carried her own destruction _in her very body_."

Whatever doubts Sarutobi might've had about Mikoto knowing _exactly_ what he was hiding had been laid to rest. The headache was sudden and severe when it appeared, so the aged man took one of the seats they'd been ignoring in the windowless room and tried to look a bit less shocked than he did. "So you're very sure, I see. I cannot dissuade you. What is the price of keeping this information from leaking any further, Mikoto-chan?" _And I thought Daisuke-kun's information was priceless. This..._

Taking a seat across the desk from him, unbothered by the desk coating the surface, the woman's smile was far more gentle than it'd been before. "While I'm sure that I could demand any number of things from you, Hokage-sama, I'm not in this for my own gain. Rather, I am making up for several mistakes in my past." Her face became sad. "For all this time, I've hated and hated. Naruto-kun held the monster that killed my closest comrade within him. He carried her name, but he didn't remind me of her at all. He was an _Uzumaki_, but he clearly wasn't... Yet I was wrong all this time. And I'm not the only one who's treated him badly. _That_ is what needs to stop."

Sensing that things were looking up for him, the Hokage prodded, "What do you suggest?"

"Hm... I hear that the majority vote was for Naruto-kun to be placed in a lower Academy class this fall than is intended, because as you well know, this class will be possibly the most important one in Konoha's history," she spoke, referring to fact that the class would contain all the young heirs of the major clans within it. "I wish for him to be sponsored into that class. In fact, I wish to personally sponsor his time in the Academy. He is already friends with my Sasuke-kun and some other children. I would truly hate to part them."

"Well... It is not an unreasonable request. There will be some argument against it, but I'm sure that it can be done. Your next suggestion?"

"I was going to ask, as I did so many years ago, to be given guardianship of him." Before the man could protest, she continued, "But I have been around him long enough to know how much he loves his Inu-niisan and Crow-niisan. I wouldn't take that away from him. However, it has also come to my attention that at the protests of Danzo-san and your former teammates, he is to be moved out of Base Four and into village-owned housing when he begins the Academy because he is a 'security risk,' as they call it. And that... That will simply not do."

"They will not stand to have him moved into the Uchiha compound, as I'm sure you know."

"Yes, I'm quite cognizant of that. However, on the same street that leads to the main entrance of the Uchiha district, there is a small, two-story apartment building. It is rather high-cost, but the cost is worth it for the quality. In fact, I do believe that Hatake Kakashi-san has an apartment in that very building. While it was deemed a 'security risk' to have the Captain of ANBU taking care of a child he so clearly dotes on and may inadvertently slip information to, they couldn't be opposed to them sharing a building, could they? Especially when the Uchiha are willing to pay for rent and utilities." Her smile had become sly.

The Hokage matched her expression. "Hmm... That is a very good idea." _Perhaps, this will not be as damaging as I thought? I can only imagine the horror this would be if it were Fugaku approaching me for some reason... _"Please, tell me your other suggestions."

"Well..."

As they continued to talk, Mikoto felt as if a burden upon her very soul was becoming lighter. It felt nice to correct her own deficiencies, and now, perhaps her friend would rest a little easier within the afterlife.

* * *

A/N: Goodness, this chapter just didn't want to be written. But yay, it's finally done. Does anybody think I should change this to the **Drama** filter? Also, **Maxmoquito**, I know this wasn't the best, but I was kinda stuck. Lo siento.

I kinda used this to fill in something that always confused me: why is the Rookie 9 the only class that graduated at twelve, when everyone before them was graduating as young as nine and it was seen as normal? And yeah, it's kinda important to the plot too... But we'll see.


	16. C r y B a b y

Um... Okay. I'll clarify: **the rating of Second Bloom will never be raised higher than T**. That's like.. **PG-15** or something. So that means, in turn, **there will be no graphic sexual anything**. There probably won't even be _non-graphic _sexual anything. Okay? Okay. With that out of the way, the **yaoi/yuri/het** thing is pretty evenly split along all lines, so oh well, I guess people will just have to make due with whatever my mind comes up with. Hope you don't cry. In any case, it won't matter for many, many chapters, if at all. On the other hand, knowing these things ahead of time helps me with my characterization... Eh. Whatever.

And... **Why do we want Kakashi dead?** I'm confused.

Also, **In Case People Are Confused**: The events of the previous chapter were first **one month after New Years**, and then** three months after New Years'**. Mini-time-skip, basically. This chapter goes a month further, as of the first paragraph. Any other questions?

* * *

Standing in the very center of the large territory known as Fire Country, Konoha had very predictable weather at all times of the year. In the summer, it was hot and sticky during the day and only slightly cooler during the night. The autumn months brought breezes from the edge of Hi no Kuni closer to Mizu and carried them along to the border of River Country... But it was still rare for it to become cool enough that more than a long-sleeved shirt was needed to keep warm. There wasn't really a 'winter' in Konoha; the days ended far earlier than they did during the rest of the year, and the wind occasionally blew so fiercely that hats and papers went flying, but it was always warm. Most citizens had never even seen snow in their lives.

Perhaps the most distinctive season in Konoha was the springtime. A combination of harsh winds, cloudy days, and torrential nights made it easy to tell when early April came around, even without a calendar to check. It was the least busy season of the year as children found themselves stuck inside, workers hurried to complete what they could before the next rainfall came down, and the marketplace remained conspicuously empty for most hours of the day. Wet and muddy was the mode for the spring months.

Barring early October, Naruto couldn't think of another time of the year when he was so completely miserable. Usually, this part of the year wasn't so bad; it just mean that instead amusing himself outside, he had to amuse himself inside, and everybody he met smelled strange and foggy, like the thick, musky scent of a wet dog's fur. It wasn't very much _fun_, especially since he tended to get bored fairly easily, but it was still tolerable.

This year, however, April was comparable to the tense times around his birthday and the Yondaime festival, when the number of ANBU he saw in the dormitories had a dramatic decrease, leaving him with only his mind and occasionally Inu for company. Only a week ago, Naruto had gone to his monthly visit with the Sandaime feeling slightly happy, and left it feeling completely and utterly horrified.

He wasn't allowed to live in Base Four anymore. All of his things had been moved to some big, empty apartment on the East side of the village, near all the separate Clan districts, and when the time came to leave the Hokage Tower, he hadn't even been allowed to go back to Base Four and say _goodbye_, or at least beg and plead for Inu to make them change his mind.

The old man hadn't even attempted to explain _why_ he suddenly had to live in some strange place on another side of Konoha from his real home, with nobody around him, and nothing but cold windows, cold floors, and blank white walls to greet him everywhere he turned. Of course, the Hokage had tried to appease him: 'you're a big boy now, Naruto-kun,' or 'now your friends can visit _your_ house sometimes too!' and 'it's _much_ closer to the Academy where you'll be attending this fall' were some of the words that had failed to convince him.

_If I knew that going to the Academy would mean I couldn't have my home anymore, I would've waited until I was older!_ _I don't wanna be a big boy if everything is going to be this stupid!_ The whiskered boy thought, wiping at his eyes furiously as tears began to well up for the umpteenth time since his arrival. _Couldn't they at least have waited until after stupid April to make me move?_

Naruto hated that not only was he always _alone_ in this place, but no matter what room he moved to, there was an almost constant sound of rain on the windows and wind making those eerie howling sounds against the glass. Sometimes, the blonde locked himself in the bathroom and turned on the shower, letting it run cold while he sat on the floor just so he would hear something _else_ for a little while.

Because of the rain, he couldn't even go out and see Sakura or any of the other people he knew. It was too wet for them to play, and going to the library in groups never seemed to end well. And since the civilian school was on break until July, he didn't even have that time during the day to have some kind of company.

_I hate April and I hate this apartment and I hate whoever the stupid people who put me here are and I hate... I hate... I hate crying!_ Naruto hadn't even noticed that he was crying again until he ran out of things to 'hate' on his list. _I just wanna go home!_

* * *

April was cloudy, windy, muddy, and wet... And that made it the perfect time of the year for Sakura. Although she wouldn't mind spending some more time outside, rather than being in the back of her mother's Tea Shop or spending the day being warm at home, the pink haired girl really couldn't complain at the opportunity she'd been given by the natural weather that Konoha experienced in the Spring.

For the past week, Sakura had been spending her days sitting at the back entrance to her mother's Tea Shop, Haru no Cha, and practicing her Suiton jutsu. Fire Country didn't readily provide venues for people to practice with water techniques, especially since the affinity wasn't very common in the area. Her other affinity, earth, was a lot easier to practice, especially since the library hosted basic technique scrolls for learning how to control it.

Even if Konoha did readily provide places for her to practice, like the lake training ground in the Clan district, it would be fairly suspiscious for a six year old civilian girl to be practicing C and B-level water techniques on her own. The combination of the rain and the empty alleyway that the back of her mother's shop opened into was the perfect place for her to begin re-teaching herself the techniques her older body could've performed flawlessly. It had the dual purpose of helping with her reserves and chakra control; the large puddles her techniques tended to create were a good place for her to master water walking again.

Of course, Sakura didn't limit herself to water techniques. The continuing rain showers were also a good cover for her developing fire techniques, which didn't come to her quite so easily, despite her bloodline. Luckily, years of watching and fighting against Sasuke had taught her many useful little tricks about Katon jutsu that she was happy to use now. Even when she messed up or lost control of the small fireballs she'd taken to making, the rain doused them before anything could be set aflame.

_I still wish I could practice my taijutsu, though,_ the girl thought, quickly running through the hand seals for a mini-flamethrower technique for the sixth time. While intellectually, Sakura had realized that her tiny limbs and developing muscles weren't a good combination for the simple defense and brute-force style of combat she'd used in the future, it still came as a shock to realize that she couldn't even dent a wooden post with her most powerful kick. It _irritated_ her, to know that her body really was weak, despite being comparatively strong with others her age. But there was nothing she could do but accept it.

If nothing else, being forced to focus solely on Katon and Suiton techniques made her development in those areas pick up speed. It also meant that with every passing day, she was getting closer to the list of requirements she had to complete before Jinya would begin to teach her Yoton and Futton. When she got over the fear, shock, and anger of the day her family had been attacked, she could look back and truly appreciate the acidic and lava-based attacks she'd seen being flung around. The girl was amused to find that much like Sasuke, she'd developed feelings of awe and reverence towards her brother's skills when she thought about the lava throwing technique that he'd used. It'd been a long time since Sakura had wanted so desperately to be _"just like oniisan!"_

"Sakura-chan? Sakura-chan, are you... Ano...?" Nadeshiko trailed off with a few confused blinks as she stood in the doorway to the back room where Sakura spent her time, trying to comprehend what she'd just seen.

The pink-haired girl flushed a deep red color as she spun around to face her mother. "Ano... Konnichiwa, okaasan." Smiling, Sakura hoped that her large eyes and cute face would deter her mother from mentioning the ball of flames, about the size of Sakura's head, which had just fizzled and died in the rain pounding outside the shop's back door.

_**Haha, good job me! **_Inner Sakura practically crowed, fading into existence behind the bewildered looking Nadeshiko. _**You'll have fun explaining this one to okaasan!**_

_Oh, shut up!_ Sakura mentally replied, a pout beginning to overtake her features.

Having finally realized that she wasn't imagining things, Nadeshiko's normally gentle face pulled into a slight frown, especially as she took in the reddened patches on Sakura's cheeks, which stood out from the girl's blush and looked distinctly similar to the reddened skin caused by contact with boiling water. _Or practicing fire techniques without any supervision,_ the woman thought. "Sakura-chan, what have I told you about practicing techniques without any supervision? You could've gotten hurt and I wouldn't have known until I came to check on you!"

The girl tried not to flinch as her mother's face went from worried to plain disappointed. "You told me not to. Gomen nasai, okaasan..." Sakura looked at the ground, an unwilling pout forming on her features. If there was one thing she'd never managed to handle well at any point in her life, it was disappointment. She _hated_ having people disappointed with her...

Looking at her daughter, Nadeshiko sighed, and came closer so that she could crouch in front of the small girl. "At least you don't have any injuries. However, you do know that I can't leave you alone back here anymore, right? You abused my trust in you, Sakura-chan. I thought that you would be drawing and reading your books for when the Academy starts, but instead, you went against my direct rules and practiced jutsu. I don't appreciate that, musume. Not at all."

"G-gomen nasai, okaasan..." Curling in on herself, Sakura tried and failed to keep tears from welling up in her eyes. "I didn't m-mean to," she managed to mumble past the familiar lump in her throat. She wrung the bottom of her blue shirt in her hands. _Why am I crying all the time? I'm almost twenty-three!_

_**No, you're almost **_**seven**_**. You just have an additional sixteen years of memories in your head,**_ her inner self replied, crouching invisibly right next to her mother. _**Besides... It hurts, doesn't it? Knowing that we abused okaasan's trust. Like... Otousan did...**_

Somehow, Nadeshiko wasn't at all surprised when her young daughter suddenly broke out into full sobs where she stood, inadvertently pushing the goggles she'd taken to wearing higher on her head as she began rubbing at her eyes. Gathering the girl into her arms as she stood, Nadeshiko fell into a familiar swaying pace in slow circles around the room, gently shushing her daughter. "Shh, it's okay, Sakura-chan... I'm just unhappy with what you did... Shh, mommy still loves you as much as always..."

Standing under an umbrella across the street, going completely unnoticed by the few passerby and ANBU patrols covering the rooftops, Haruno Daisuke watched with softened features as his youngest child eventually cried herself to sleep in her mother's arms. He didn't know what had set Sakura off, but it probably had something to do with Nadeshiko finding her practicing jutsu in the back.

_I'm glad she found her,_ he thought. The man had been getting worried as his child went through techniques over and over again without really stopping to rest. Unmoving, he continued watching the window as his wife and child disappeared from the room, and slowly allowed his features to become the normal poker face that he'd found himself wearing in the past four months. _It won't be long now..._

Beginning to walk forward, Daisuke stepped into the alleyway unnoticed just as two genderless figures, both tall enough to be adults, faded into view after releasing a mist-concealment technique. He was standing behind them as the one with the Usagi mask began carving tiny, almost unnoticeable seals around the wooden doorway, while the Saru masked figure stood watch. The Saru masked one was staring straight to the left of Daisuke's head without realizing it.

"I can see why Danzo-sama is so interested in the little girl," the Saru mask spoke with a female voice that wasn't a child's or an adult's. She wasn't graced with a response as the Usagi mask continued carving.

_Usagi-san is the senior. And Saru is not fully trained yet,_ Daisuke surmised, tilting his head and staring at the Saru mask with a blank face. _...She can go to the deprogrammers. Hokage-sama will be pleased to have another potential chuunin within the ranks._ He continued making short assessments, compiling a mental report to give to Inoichi and the others on the team. It kept him from thinking of Danzo's interest in _his_ little Sakura, and probably losing both his cool and his control.

Shortly before Usagi finished carving seals onto the opposite side of the doorway, the white haired man snapped out with a sudden, vicious kick and sadistically enjoyed the sharp crack that sounded as the senior Root member's head crashed into the brick wall of the tea shop. The younger, Saru masked root member didn't react fast enough to avoid the ofuda he slapped onto her bare neck, and fell to the ground, completely unable to use her muscles.

The paper paralysis tag was a tentative new development of the Konoha T&I department, and he much preferred it to using jutsu, since he found most techniques exhausted him fairly easily. Giving the door a wary look, Daisuke wished that they'd developed something for completely destroying a set of seals before they were activated. As it was, however, he used a kunai to gently scratch every inscription into nonexistence, and then busied himself with ignoring the freezing cold rain as he folded his umbrella and busied himself with gathering a Root agent under each arm.

He was stalling, of course. Being in the back alley of Haru no Cha was the closest he'd been to any of his family in ages. He kept hoping, for some reason, that Nadeshiko would open the door again and see him, _smile _at him... _You're delusional,_ he told himself, setting his jaw as walked further into the alleyway, intending to use the backstreets to return to base with his new cargo. _Next time... Next time, I won't let Shikaku and Inoichi compromise my ability to complete my duties again. I shouldn't have been chosen to scout this location in the first place..._ His team members seemed soft hearted when it came to him, for some reason.

Only moments after Daisuke exited the alley, the back door opened again, and Nadeshiko poked her head out, looking curious. _I could've sworn I heard something crack back here._ _A cat in the alley maybe...?_ She shook her head, then closed the door and headed back to the front of the shop, passing the small futon where her daughter was asleep as she did so.

_Hm. Oh well._

* * *

Touken Saichi had concluded a long, long time ago that his cousin's friend Sasuke was a very strange boy. His eyes looked like they were too big for his face whenever he smiled, his hair stood up strangely even when it was soaking wet, and he didn't know how to talk for a very long time without squishing all his words together and running out of air. He got angry for some reason if anyone proved that whatever he might say or do wasn't _right_ or _better_ than all the others, and when he was right, he never seemed to let it die out.

Still, even though he was strange, Saichi thought that Sasuke was still a nice person, even if he did act like a happy puppy all the time. Or at least, he _used_ to think that Sasuke acted like that all the time. He was startled to find that the usually nice boy had a mean, scary looking side that could come out of nowhere.

One moment, Sasuke was telling them all about the toy his oniisan had brought back from Rice Country, a stuffed green dragon. The next moment, right when they stepped out of the kitchen where Mikoto-san had given them lunch, the other boy's smile had disappeared and his eyes were locked in a frighteningly mean looking glare, of the likes he'd only seen when his father Genji was angry at someone.

The cause of the sudden shift was a tall man with narrow brown eyes and darker brown hair in a style that was similar to Sasuke's. Even though he was at least three feet taller than all of the children gathered at the kitchen entrance, he still seemed to look down his nose at them, with an especially fierce look once his eyes caught onto Sakura and Naruto.

Strangely, the man's glare seemed to lessen as he studied Sai. "You look like an Uchiha from the main line, boy, but I don't recognize you. Who are your parents?" The man asked in a gruff voice, with a strange slur behind his words; it seemed to be caused by the faded bruising all around his jaw.

Looking back at the man, Sai decided immediately that he didn't like anyone who could make Sasuke look so _mean_. "My name is Tou-ken Sai-chi. Not U-chi-ha." He folded his arms across his chest, and sidled closer to Sasuke, who had never dropped the mean look from his face. "I do not like you very much."

As soon as the boy had declared that he wasn't an Uchiha, Fugaku turned his eyes back to his son, dismissing the brat. "I see you've picked up more commoners, Sasuke. I know now that you will never become as strong as Itachi. The elders were right in saying that I should give you no consideration." And then he yelped.

He yelped again when, following the lead of a scowling Naruto, Sai proceeded to step forward and kick him in the shin as hard as he could. Not to be left out, Sakura bounded forward and kicked out as well, earning another yelp from the man even as he took steps backwards to move out of range, clutching as his left leg.

"If you don't got nothin' nice to say, don't say nothin' at all!" Naruto all but barked out, giving Fugaku the fiercest glare a seven year old boy could. He did _not_ appreciate having one of his friends belittled, the same way people had been talking about _him _since the news got out that he'd be joining the Academy. "So leave Sasuke alone, stupid-head! He never did anything to you!"

"Yeah! Leave him alone!"

"Stupid-head!"

"You impudent little commoners...!" Fugaku took a step forward, his face twisted in anger, but found himself stopping when he noticed his wife standing in the doorway to the kitchen, not looking very amused at all. The woman's stare was soon joined by his eldest son's, as Itachi stepped into the hall with hair that was still wet from the shower he'd just taken. Fugaku thought that his son might even have a worse glare than his mother, if only for the fact that his expression was normally so placid.

"Shouldn't you be meeting with the Elders right now, Fugaku?" Mikoto spoke with a raised brow. "I was under the impression that you were ready to regain your position after your _episode_ several months ago. But maybe you aren't as recovered as the doctors indicated...?" There was a threat hidden somewhere in her tone.

"...Hmph." With a final glare to each of the children, as well as his son, Fugaku went around them and continued on his path to the the back door of the house. It was hard to miss the mutterings of 'disgrace' and 'commoner children' as he left.

And then Sasuke sniffled once... Twice... A third time... And the boy started sobbing where he stood.

Even as she shuffled forward to give Sasuke a hug, Sakura felt guilty for the burst of relief she'd felt when the boy had started to cry, which completely destroyed the burning silence that had surrounded him for the past few minutes. Between the glare on his face and the utter loathing for Fugaku that had practically been rolling off of him, she'd had several images run past her mind, overlapping his image with the older and far less happy Sasuke that she'd known.

She never, _ever_ wanted to see that look on his face again.

As Mikoto began shuffling them outside and Itachi scooped Sasuke into his arms, Sakura caught a glimpse of the elder Uchiha boy's expression, and realized that he was just as troubled by Sasuke's former anger as she had been. _He really is a good older brother... Jinya wouldn't want that look on my face either..._ And that bothered her. _How long will it be until Madara sets things in motion and begins to chip away at those bonds that he has?_

_**...I suppose we'll be getting a lot more proactive from now on, won't we?**_

_...Hai..._

* * *

_"Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic; it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation."_

Aburame Shibi had spent twenty-seven years of his life listening to and repeating this mantra as he was raised from being a child, to a man, to a well-groomed leader. This creed was responsible for the typical personalities and logic of most Aburame members. While their kikkaichuu were invaluable for reconnaissance, it was their more base qualities that made them a silent but integral part of running Konoha's military faction.

And so, when it came to his attention that his son had been kidnapped from the forest where he'd been searching, once again, for an elusive blue-shelled beetle that he'd taken a fancy to, Shibi managed to keep his main reaction down to the twitching of his hidden hands, even as the worry he'd felt became a fear that burst strong and painful within his chest, sending his personal insect colony into a frenzy. He was ever grateful to his parents and the tutors that had given him the ability to remain calm as he ordered out three squads of destruction bugs and two others of his clan to begin searching for his child.

While he hadn't particularly enjoyed the fact that his son's friend had returned the blue beetle again after a month during which Shino wasn't distracted by its' presence, he couldn't help but feel extremely grateful now. If that insect hadn't returned to him with the news that strange figures had absconded with his son, he might not have known about the boy's disappearance until it was much too late. Perhaps he would give into his son's quiet pleading and allow the boy to include the beetle when he began breeding his own colony.

The thought that Shino might not be returned couldn't cross his mind without being shredded to pieces by pure determination. Shibi _would_ find his son, and Shino _would_ be unharmed when he got there. There _was_ no other outcome, as far as he was concerned.

Far from the Aburame compound, inside a series of tunnels and caverns that formed the largest and most hidden base in all of Fire Country, Danzo gave a grim smile as he looked over the four children he'd managed to gather. Taking clan heirs and well-known children was always risky, but his forces were in desperate need of the boost they would help create, since so many operations had begun to fail as junior members began taking them over. Perhaps, if the orphanages of Konoha hadn't been put under such a harsh review and reworking in the past few months, he could've resorted to his normal 'recruitment' methods. But there would be time for that later. And for now...

For now, he would settle with the little gifts he already had; after all, they were the key to getting the real prize. Perhaps he would even make them more useful to Konoha in the meantime. The Aburame boy had untapped potential, he could tell, and while the Uchiha girl was a half-breed with little to no chance of activating the Sharingan naturally, he already had his own solution to that little problem. His _friend_ had been more than willing to make some donations for a nice DNA-boosting serum. The other two weren't quite so spectacular, but that was alright. They would be _noticed_, and that was all he needed at the moment.

"Hello, my little soldiers. Welcome to Root, your new home..."

* * *

A/N: Alright. I didn't make this chapter as long as I intended to when I was gonna start, but that's okay. I think there's more fun stuff starting up soon. Still, laying the groundwork is important, ne? 'Tis Danzo, after all.

As always, please point out any mistakes and missing words I might have in this chapter. Thanks for reading.


	17. I n v e s t i g a t e C o m p l y

Huh... Are you people **Shino fans** or just **Danzo haters**? I can't actually tell. Also, another question for the masses: **what do you think of a forum for Second Bloom**? That way, everyone can complain to each other about me instead of just leaving review rants. Great idea, ne? Tell me your thoughts on that.

Also: **Why do so many people keep going back to chapter 14? **I'm confused.

(Looking back... This chapter seriously didn't want to be written. Ugh.)

* * *

Three days had passed since four well-known children had first gone missing, and to the horror of the other citizens, those four were only the _first_ of them. In the 72 hours since Aburame Shino and three other children's kidnappings had been reported, nearly thirty others had followed. Children disappeared from their bedrooms without a trace, overanxious mothers and fathers found themselves being shaken awake to find their children missing in broad daylight, and sometimes, the most fiercely guarded of children would be taken without anyone realizing it until, at a touch, they realized that the body they'd kept close was nothing but an illusion. There was no pattern to the kidnappings besides the young ages of the children being taken, scents left behind confused even the noses of Inuzuka dogs, and the same unnatural chakra signature was found at the scene of each disappearance.

Konoha had been on total lock down for the past two days. Genin squads joined up with the military police in creating sentries inside, outside, and atop the walls surrounding the village, while chuunin squads were reformed into tracking and reconnaissance teams based on individual skills. The Inuzuka dogs were out in full force with their partners, while Hyuuga and Uchiha shinobi were stationed throughout the village, on the look out for genjutsu, unusual chakra, or anything otherwise suspiscious. Several grown men and women disappeared during the chaos, and while it was an open secret that they'd been discovered as spies or traitors due to the increased security measures, they didn't receive much attention at all. None of them had anything to do with the missing children.

The Hokage Tower, the safest place in the village, had gone from an administration post to a refuge for many of the children within the village. Civilian parents and families became impromptu daycare runners overnight, and despite how exhausting it was to have so many children together in one place, it was the safest any of them felt that they could keep their families. Still, Konoha had many children, and it would be impossible to fit them all in the tower along with the workers. Almost all the other children and families were located in one of the three orphanages, which had full jounin squads guarding each of them. Konoha itself was fairly empty of anything but shinobi and the older, childless citizens.

Of course, not _all_ of the children were in the expected places. Naruto had been moved back to Base Four in the middle of the night, for no reasons that the child could actually discern. Even though he'd been returned to his old room, none of his things were there, and besides the short period of time when his door was opened for one harried looking secretary or another to open his door, the child hadn't received any human contact at all, let alone news. Being locked in the room was slowly driving him insane; he couldn't even leave to go to the bathroom, because there was a bathroom _connected_ to the room.

Not for the first time, Naruto eyed the window contemplatively from his position. It was locked somehow, and he knew from experience with a badly-aimed rubber ball that that the glass was fairly impossible to break. _Still, it's not like I ever tried to open it..._ He already knew that trying to leave the room through the door was futile, but maybe he could just crawl out this way? Most of Base Four was underground, and his room was on the top levels. It couldn't be _too_ far to the ground...

_Inu-niisan leaves places through windows all the time,_ the blonde thought, subconsciously making his decision as he left the drawings he'd been doing in order to walk over and start examining the window. _There's got to be a lock on it somewhere, right?_ "Maybe I'm not looking close enough," Naruto mumbled to himself thoughtfully. "Hm..." His eyes widened as he had a thought. _A-ha!_

Half a minute later, the wooden chair that he'd previously been sitting in was pushed up against the window as he stood on his tiptoes, looking for the latch that he was sure existed somewhere on the window. How else did Inu-niisan open it to cool the room during the summer? Still, despite his searching, he didn't find it. _Who makes stupid windows without latches, anyways? It's got to open somehow..._

It was during his close inspection of the glass, which was five times more exciting than anything he'd done in the last twenty-four hours, that Naruto noticed some strange looking scratches along the bottom of the window sill. Crouching on the chair, he looked closer, and then blinked. "Huh. They look kinda like those things from okaasan's scrolls..." While he didn't understand most of the things in the scrolls that Sakura had given him about his family, he _did_ know that he recognized a few of those seals. And he had started learning just a little bit of them, since Inu-niisan had taught him some so that he could hide his new treasures.

With a new side objective in mind, Naruto scrambled back off the chair and over to the bed, where his jacket was still laying from when Neko had unceremoniously left him here in the middle of the night. From an inside pocket of the thick jacket, he removed a folded paper crane, slightly bigger than his palm, and then began deconstructing it. When the square of paper was laid out as flat as it could be, he bit his thumb in a motion that was becoming very familiar, and let a bit of blood drop onto the paper.

Immediately, a series of squiggly black lines and strange shapes began to unfurl themselves from nowhere, spreading out over the paper until the crane was more black than white. This was Naruto's favorite part about seals; it was like watching a painting in reverse or fast-forward every time he used one. Still, he didn't have time to seal and unseal it over and over again at the moment. He just needed to get the scroll where he remembered seeing some of the seals on the window, which would probably tell him exactly how to unlock them. If he was lucky, they controlled the ability to open and close the window, and he would be able to get out and perhaps go see Sakura before one ANBU or another caught up to him.

The boy paused. _Oh yeah... I'm probably gonna get in trouble for this, aren't I?_ The six year old rolled the thought through his head a few times, briefly considering the pros and cons, before finally shrugging. _Oh well. They should've given me something better to do than drawing._

* * *

Sakura was going insane. _I can't stay here. Oh kami-sama, I really can't stay here._ A chorus of shrieking and yelling erupted to the left of her, and the pink-haired girl almost cringed as she burrowed further into the corner of the orphanage that she'd claimed for her own. _What did I do to cause this?_ She was honestly confused this time. In truth, the best answer would be that her mere presence in the past had changed things, but that wasn't specific enough. _I can't think of anything that... _Her thoughts paused. _...My family. So many children that didn't go to Danzo. But... No! That doesn't make any sense!_

A rubber ball almost beamed her in the head, and only the reflexes that she'd slowly begun to regain through playing tag and chasing her friends allowed her to duck. Sakura wished that she could curl up further, but the only way to do that would be for her to implode, which didn't seem like it would be happening anytime soon. _This can't be Danzo! He's too sneaky. He wouldn't do something this overt, not unless... Unless... It's a cover-up...?_

_**If it is a cover up by Danzo, then he's doing a damn good job. Konoha's attentions weren't even turned this inwards after the Oto invasion**__, _her pensive inner self chimed in, super-imposing herself on the back of a boy boasting to some younger girls about his 'awesome' older sister. _**Even so, what could possibly be his objective? This kinda thing takes either a shit ton of balls or a whole lot of desperation. I'll let you choose which one is more likely**_, she quipped dryly.

_Heh..._ Unbidden, her face twisted, as she watched a parent trying (and failing) to dissuade her young son from licking at the snot running from his nose. _...I think I need to get out of here. There are only so many places that an organization like Root could keep thirty-six children all at once, and I'm sure that I've gone with Tsunade-sama to clear out all of them. Even if it isn't Danzo, chances are he still has something lingering around about it. I swear that man gets his hands on every bit of information that comes through these gates..._

_**And what about okaasan?**_ Sakura froze at her other self's soft words. _**She's worried enough about niisan and us as it is, and that was before all of this happened. Do you really want her to come back and find you missing?**_

_...Okaasan..._ No, Sakura didn't want that. However, what was more important? Family or duty? It was a hard question to answer in the most peaceful of times, never mind in the midst of strife everywhere that she looked. She thought about staying put with the other children for a moment, but slowly, her face grew uncharacteristically hard. _No. I can't stay here. My whole reason for being here is to keep things like this from happening, or at least escalating. I love Okaasan, but..._

_**But?**_

_...But all of those children love their parents too. Shino and all the others... There are thirty-six of them, and one of me. And my decision is to help them and their families, so that I won't have to live with the weight of not helping them when I can return to _my_ family,_ Sakura thought, standing up and slowly beginning to pull her chakra into her center, gradually letting the feeling fade away, and allowing her less-stable persona to fade with it. _This is my mission. My decision. And I'm going to go through with it._

_**I'm glad I don't need to remind you why we're here. We can't afford to sit with the children and act weak. **_Even as she faded back into nothingness, her inner self seemed to smile grimly. _**We're never going to be weak again.**_

_No matter what age._

As if a switch had been flipped, her mind dropped fully into her battle-ready mindset, and all thoughts except the most important ones ceased. As her expression became nothing but a poker face, her footsteps became lighter than feathers, and she seemed to become more like a preying shadow than a child. But nobody paid the girl any attention, if they noticed her at all, and she slunk out of the room with no trouble, and then the orphanage itself.

It didn't take her much time to get past the jounin. It seemed that, on a lucky stroke, the Hyuuga guards were being switched out at that moment and she could sneak off unimpeded. It was here that being friends with Naruto really helped her; someway, somehow, the blonde knew all sorts of secret nooks and crannies that only people their size could really fit in. Playing hide and seek with him was an actual challenge, and it seemed that all the times she'd been the one seeking would finally be of real use.

Using all the stealth abilities she remembered and some she'd only just begun to learn, Sakura went to the ROOT base of operations that sat the closest to the orphanage where she'd been placed, which was in the Western sector of the village. As she walked, she was playing out different scenarios within her head; someway, somehow, she was _going_ to alert the other shinobi in Konoha if and when she found the children. For the moment, however, she would just hope not to get caught before she even found anything.

Unbidden, a thought rose in the back of her mind: _I may be unable to do anything for now, __**Danzo**__, but I haven't forgotten what you tried to do with my family. One day, I'm going to __**kill**__ you..._

* * *

"Get up and fight her."

Keeping his eyes closed and his face against the cool stone floor of the cave-like training room, Shino barely even heard the voice. He just _breathed_. His ears caught the distant sound of large feet shuffling across the floor towards him, but he didn't even consider moving until he heard the familiar sound of metal clanging onto the ground, right next to his face.

When he opened his eyes to the room, which looked dark even without his sunglasses, there was a kunai on the floor next to him. There was something odd and brownish on the edge of it, and with a slight change in the tone of the weak buzzing in his body, he found out that it was dried blood. Beginning to feel nauseous, not for the first time, the boy rolled away and slowly pushed himself onto his knees.

He kept his eyes on the floor as he heard the odd shuffle of the bandaged man coming to stop in front of him, with a harsh grip on the frightened brown-haired girl who he was supposed to be 'fighting.' _I won't hurt you,_ he silently told the other child. _I know we're both stuck here. It's not your fault that this situation is happening. But it will be okay soon. Otousan will find me and he will save you too._ Shino had repeated this more times than he cared to count. It was a good deterrent from crying. Things were hard at the moment, but he was going to be _fine_.

Danzo looked down at the kneeling child, who was continuing to do a spectacular job of defying his orders. _This one will grow to be a team leader, I'm sure,_ he thought to himself. _Perhaps I won't have enough time to break him and reforge a better tool for Konoha, but I know this one is already strong. It isn't such a loss._ But that didn't mean that he would be gentle with the boy.

Reaching down, Danzo grasped the Aburame child's pale, skinny wrist. He ignored the flinch he received in turn, although he wondered if it was because of the hold, or because he was inadvertently gripping the seal which locked the boy's insects inside his body. With almost no effort to the motion, the old man pulled the child onto his feet, and found himself pleased when large brown eyes locked onto him, but no expression appeared. "Both of you need to fight if you wish to get out of here," he stated. "I will not allow you to leave this room until someone has drawn blood."

Shino looked down at his hand as the same old blade was pressed into it, and then he looked at the girl across from him as she shivered where she stood, awkwardly clutching at her own kunai, which was far cleaner than the one he'd been given. There were tears coming down her face and snot ran freely from her nose, but he didn't blame her at all. It was cold, and he wanted to cry too. He just... Wouldn't.

Instead, he dropped his kunai again, and forced a smile onto his face. It wasn't very big, and his cheeks felt strange as he tried to hold the expression, but it seemed to reassure the girl. "You can hit me. It's okay." _I'm stronger than her_, he thought. _It's okay. If I get hurt, otousan will heal me when he comes to save me._ Mentally, he gave a resolute nod. He _wasn't_ going to hurt her.

A harsh voice startled them both into jumping: "You will _fight_. Are you not cold and tired and hungry? Finish this so that you may leave!"

It was easy for him to ignore Danzo's glaring from the wall, but the girl's tears quickly renewed themselves, and she took two feeble steps forward, still holding the kunai like a bat of some sort. Keeping his hands at his sides, Shino stepped closer, putting them in range. "Do it," he said simply.

Shaking, the girl raised the weapon, but paused before it could make contact with him. "I-I c-can't!" She stuttered out, shaking her head harshly from side to side. "N-no! No! I don't w-want to!"

He didn't really want her to hurt him either, but someone would have to do it. "Just try. Like this." Reaching out, he pushed at her gently, and then winced when she still lost balance and toppled onto the ground.

Almost sobbing now, the girl slowly pulled herself onto her knees, and then used both her hands to push at Shino with more harshness than he'd used previously. Shino fell over as well, but he wasn't angry. _It's okay. I'm not hurt,_ he told himself. _And if I was hurt, otousan would heal it, so it's okay._ Slowly, he sat up again, looking at the girl who was still sitting on the floor, now hugging herself as she cried.

As he pulled himself onto his knees, he couldn't help but notice that two of the masked people who had kidnapped him in the first place were suddenly in the room, taking Danzo's attention away from them, even if it was only briefly. Not wanting to waste such a chance, he reached out and snatched up the girl's left hand, where the kunai was, and brought it closer to him. Without any hesitation, he wrapped his hand around her smaller ones, and then forced her to cut a line along his forearm.

When he let her go, she screamed and threw the weapon away from her, then curled into a little ball. Shino felt guilty for making her do that, but he supposed it was the only way for anything to get done. His arm hurt badly, and his shirt was quickly becoming soaked with blood as he held the appendage against him, but it was _okay_. _Otousan will fix it when he comes to save me,_ he thought, biting his lip as the pain seemed to increase. _It's okay._

On the opposite side of the room, Danzo spared a glance to the side when he heard the commotion, and allowed a pleased smile to cross his lips when he noticed that both children were on the floor and the boy was injured. _A shinobi must kill their heart in order to be truly effective,_ he recited to himself. _This generation will be Konoha's finest, if I have anything so say about it._

With those thoughts, he turned back to the two agents standing before him. "I am pleased with your work so far, Waraki. Now that the Sandaime has recalled the tracker team at that border, this operation can be completed far sooner." He nodded as the Tori masked member bowed. Danzo would never stop being grateful for having recruited the boy; he made an excellent infiltrator. Turning slightly, he focused on the Sparrow masked ROOT member. "Give your report."

"All thirty-four of the other children are situated and have received their marks. Fuu has implanted all orders successfully. Each child has been fully sedated and checked over; there are no injuries. Also, Unit Two has sent word back to base. The first stage had no complications and they are requesting the affirmative to go ahead with the mission."

"Hm. I see. And how many are there?"

"Seventeen, Danzo-sama."

"Good, very good... Send back the affirmative, Sparrow, and then enlist Unit Four to begin preparing to return the children. As long as Konoha's eyes are turned on its' internal affairs, they'll ignore anything in the other nations. Waraki, go take care of those two children and give them the same treatment as the others have received so far. Take special care with the boy's arm. Sparrow, go now."

"Hai, Danzo-sama!"

The two disappeared, and soon, the room was seemingly empty. Danzo seemed to smile at nothing, before speaking to the air, "I am very pleased with how quickly you've held up your end of the bargain. Rest assured that I will uphold mine as well. It is already in the works."

A masked figure materialized out of the wall next to Danzo, and baritone chuckling began to fill the air. "I had not expected you to be so easily pleased, Danzo. But it is all to my benefit, I suppose. I trust you will keep in contact with any _interesting_ information, future Hokage-sama?"

With a grim smile, he replied, "Of course, so long as it isn't used against Konoha, _Mizukage-sama_. I'm sure that if such a thing were to happen, many parties would be interested in knowing about Uchiha Madara's well-hidden pursuits..."

"Hai. It's only _fair_..." With more eerie laughter, the orange masked man faded away once again, and Danzo was truly left alone.

Keeping up his somewhat 'pleasant' expression, the man began to slowly hobble out of the room. _Oh yes, Madara, continue to believe that you hold all the reigns. But you are yet another means to an end. Konoha will be on top when the time comes; I'll make sure of it!_

* * *

On one of the many rocky beaches that made up the edges of Mizu no Kuni, Terumī Mei waited impatiently at the very edge of the shore, trying to keep a twitch in her left hand from showing. It felt like only yesterday, she'd been speaking to her benevolent Yondaime Mizukage and gaining permission to go to her family reunion. In reality, however, it was only a few days ago that she found out exactly how much he'd changed in the short few weeks that she'd been gone at New Year's.

He was giving away the children of Kirigakure.

It was one thing to punish the Kaguya clan for their attempted coup d'etat, but to punish every clan with a kekkei genkai because of one's mistake? It was going too far. Kiri had always been one of the most militaristic villages, and it was admittedly very bloody in many of it's dealings, but that had slowly been changing after Yagura took the place of the Sandaime Mizukage, a bloodthirsty old war-hawk with his ire set on the whole world. Mei had gone to her family reunion feeling secure in the knowledge that life for her, her village, and her family were all _improving_.

And then she'd come back to find that Yagura had somehow gotten entangled with that bastard Shimura Danzo. It had all culminated three days ago, when the jinchuuriki of the Sanbi personally went around to homes with a hand-picked squad and, from each one, took a child with an active bloodline. The man didn't even attempt to hide his purpose; he was going to take the seventeen children that he'd chosen and give them away to some organization that operated out of the shadows, headed by someone named 'Shimura-san.'

At first, she'd held her doubts, but then she saw the 'escort' for the children; twelve shinobi with black armor and white masks that had the symbol 'Ne' on the forehead in red ink. Those were the _same_ forces that had almost decimated her family only months ago.

The first thing she'd done, upon seeing them, was gather the few close comrades she had and leave to Nami no Kuni, where she knew that she could get the assistance that she needed to stop those forces and save those children from a fate that she feared would be worse than death. And now, two days later, they were hours away from attacking and her nerves were shot.

"It's very unnatural to see you without that smile of yours, Mei."

The redheaded woman didn't jump, but it was a close call. Luckily, she recognized the voice, and it was enough to make the smile that had been gone appear again. "So you've decided to come along with us in this venture?"

With a snort, Momochi Zabuza stepped closer to the woman and fought not to roll his eyes. "As if I would leave you alone with such an operation. You don't know the meaning of stealth, not with hair that color." He seemed to grunt, then shifted to the side some revealing a small, wide-eyed child clinging to his left leg. "I just had to go get this brat."

Instantly, Mei went from solemn to hyped as she crouched in front of the child, who had large brown eyes and long, dark brown hair that made it hard for her to tell if it was a boy a girl. "Ah! Momo-kun, you didn't tell me you'd picked up a stray kitten! So cute! What's your name, kodomo-chan?" She asked.

"Uh, ah, um..." With a squeak and a brilliant blush, the child scooted back until all but one eye was hidden behind Zabuza's leg, as the sword-carrying man looked skyward, as if to ask, 'why me?'

"The kid's name is Haku. Don't let him fool you; he only _looks_ girly." Zabuza shook his leg lightly, but not hard enough to actually dislodge the small boy. "He needs to outgrow this shyness if he wants to be my apprentice."

Haku seemed to flush an even darker red at the words, before burying his face fully into Zabuza's leg, causing Mei to squeal quietly at the cuteness of it all. "He would get along perfect with little Chojuro-kun. They'd be so cute together!"

"Che. Whatever. Anyways, are we doing this or not? And where are the others? I saw Ao and that brat Chojuro at the docks already, but you said something about back-up," the man replied. His gaze seemed to lock onto a spot further along the shore. "That them?"

Standing up, Mei calmed herself, and spotted the huddle of forms that her old genin partner was referring to as the came closer. "Yes... Yes, that's them. Saeko-obasan, Hachigo-ojisan, Shizen-ojisan, Namida-neesan, and... Eh? Obaasan decided to come as well?" The woman blinked.

As they got closer, Karibi Ruriko moved to the front of the group, and was the first to stop in front of her great-niece. "There's no need to look so surprised, Mei-chan. You mentioned that many children are in danger here, so I felt that I should join in as well." The woman turned a look to her niece's companion, and felt both her brows go into her hairline as she took in the picture of pure masculinity before her, from body to weaponry to clothing. "I thought you said you didn't have a boyfriend?"

Mei instantly broke into protests about how there was absolutely _nothing_ happening between the two of them, and how she didn't need a boyfriend because she was '_only twenty!'_ and therefore still young. Meanwhile, after a moment of staring blankly at the older woman, Zabuza returned to looking skyward. _Definitely Mei's family._

Once Mei was calmed, a quick round of introductions was set off before a serious air set in and the planning was commenced. It was nice to feel briefly lighthearted in the most daunting of times, but it would be even better to have time to smile and laugh once everything was done for.

* * *

A/N: So it's kinda like a cliffhanger. Sorry. But this is long enough already, you'll just have to wait for everything else. Anyways, thanks for reading, and as always, **please point out any stupid spelling/grammar mistakes to me please!**


	18. L a d y F o r t u n e

So I didn't really get very many replies on the whole **making a forum issue**. Perhaps more people will respond this time. I'm glad that people like the inclusion of Zabuza, Mei, Madara, and Haku.

To whoever **fsdfsdfsd** is: Too lazy to go in-depth on my knowledge of Japanese, so instead, I'll say that Sakura from Card Captor Sakura calls her father **Otousan** in the non-dubbed series, and there are many other examples throughout the land of anime and manga, so I'm sticking with my usage of it. **Chichiue** is the honorable, 'you're a hard-ass and I acknowledge my worm status in comparison to you' way of saying things. Although you can actually say that in Japan, only, you'd probably be accused of speaking like **Shakespeare **or something. Just saying.

**Does anyone want me to explain the Japanese I use here**? Nobody got on my ass about using it when I asked, so... I could always post a link to a good dictionary on my profile. Eh, whatever. In any case, this chapter is my newest attempt at **a passable fighting scene **(really, I'm one of those people that just skips over them in every story.) Let's see how it goes.

* * *

The patrol presence in Konoha had been cut to nearly half that amount as a thunderstorm first took the shinobi by surprise, and then proceeded to become harsher and harsher over the course of several hours, seeming like it would never abate. Even for April, the weather was unnatural, but the water had the dual effect of washing away any and all semblances of most scents and making it nearly impossible to see more than ten feet in front of oneself. The teams had been shuffled again, moving the Inuzuka and their companions into the guard posts and sending the Uchiha and Hyuuga out to take over the mobile scouting of the village and the close forests.

Sakura counted the consistent downpour as both a blessing and a curse. The rain made it just as hard for her to see and travel as it did for all the shinobi that she'd been avoiding since early that morning, but on the flip-side, she had goggles, which she'd never been more grateful for. Her chakra control and water affinity left her physically unaffected by the rain; it slid off her like water off a duck's back. Her stealth had also been helped by the heavy cover of water, and she'd managed to scour three of the smallest bases that ROOT had utilized over the years so far. Overall, the rain was a boon to her in this situation. It made getting in and out of places much easier.

If she had her timing and information correct, the series of underground tunnels that Danzo would take up in the future couldn't be completely carved yet. She'd refrained from checking them with this reasoning, along with the unlikelihood of an underground base being suitable for training in the rainy months. Now, however, she mentally cursed herself and revised her thoughts; with seals, any surface could be made impenetrable, and the tunnels didn't _need_ to be completely carved out in order to be used.

Of course, she'd also been avoiding the tunnels for another reason; in her original time, the tunnels running beneath Konoha had been Danzo's very last base, simply because they were so heavily fortified. It was literally impossible to enter the place without alerting someone or setting off some kind of lethal trap. Her size gave her a very slight advantage in stealth, but also a host of trouble, at least when it came to traveling long distances and making large jumps or figuring out complicated maneuvers to get where she needed to go.

As it happened, however, she'd gotten some help in this area from the person she'd least expected to meet.

Crouching next to her in the muddy underbrush of Training Ground Twelve, humming under his breath and squinting in deep thought, was Naruto. She'd run into the boy quite by accident; the second location that she'd checked was close to Base Four, or the main ANBU dormitories. After apparently unsealing a window, climbing out of it, and wandering around in search of _something _(she wasn't sure _he_ even knew what he was looking for), Naruto had come close to the spot where Sakura had been hiding and thinking at the moment.

Upon spotting his tell-tale blonde hair, Sakura almost had a conniption fit, and immediately latched onto him and pulled him into hiding with her. Of course, after he'd realized who snatched him up, there was an awkward moment where both children looked at each other, wondering _why_ the other was out. Naruto had come forth with his answer easily, but Sakura hedged, unable to think up a suitable explanation.

Luckily, Naruto had picked up on her nervousness, and proceeded to tap the side of his nose with a mischievous look on his face; with that gesture, he silently told her that he didn't mind if she kept quiet, and more than that, he could keep a secret. It was with relief that Sakura accepted the gesture for what it was, and simply said that it was something she absolutely _had_ to do. But she was left with a problem; Naruto couldn't actually get back into the window, which he'd closed after himself, nor did he want to. Yet leaving him alone wasn't an option, and neither was letting him get caught by the patrols (although she was fairly sure that his stealth was actually _better_ than hers when he put his mind to it.)

And that was how she'd gained an accomplice, one that could keep up with her, at that. Sakura could protect herself from the rain and mud, while Naruto wasn't bothered by the conditions at all, and had his _tenant_ protecting him from getting sick as a bonus, not that he knew it. Naruto proved to be very adept at finding shortcuts and gathering less-than-orthodox supplies to help them.

In the last two hours, she'd seen more of the 'trickster' she knew from her original childhood than she had in the last ten months. But it was also the first time she'd seen Naruto pull off some of the seemingly impossible feats he'd always managed in the future, and she found herself somewhat awed. In his hands, an elastic band that he'd found on the side of the road became a slingshot which he used to preemptively set off a trap they needed to get by. Several branches and large leaves turned into a simple, if shaky ramp for them to climb and simple protection for their hands that kept them from setting off sensor seals that only responded to human contact. With some creative acrobatics and torn cloth to cover their palms, a rushing river of water created by the storm was as easy to climb as a regular staircase, without the use of any chakra that would make them detectable.

And now, they were at the top of the rocky range hidden in Training Ground Twelve, hiding before a deceptive stone face that hid the second smallest entrance that Sakura knew of to the underground Root base. She'd chosen it because, in her time, it was the least guarded and the least used, since it was positioned in a popular training ground.

_Doesn't seem like the least used today,_ she thought, unconsciously tensing as the third group of Root members in the last half hour emerged from the genjutsu that hid the entrance and flashed away into the rain. _It has to be an operation by Danzo. Even if he doesn't have the children, he's using this opportunity to do more of his dirty-work..._ An abrupt halt in the humming from Naruto drew her intention back to the blonde.

"The ones that left before them," Naruto began with his face still screwed up in thought, "they said that they were Unit Six, Sub-Unit B. And they all had 'tori' type masks..."

Sakura blinked rapidly in surprise from behind her red-tinted goggles. _He managed to hear that from all the way over here...?_ She yearned to ask him how strong his senses really were, something she'd never even considered before, but this wasn't the time for that. _Soon, though._

Continuing, the boy scratched one of his cheeks and spoke, "If they're anything like the _real_ Konoha ANBU, they're prolly back-up instead of a real task force, cuz they're 'B.' If we use a henge and look a bit roughed up, we can go in as part of 'A' with an emergency report, and we won't be stopped."

"No way would that work," Sakura protested with furrowed brows. "It's too simple. They probably check for the henge first thing, we'd never make it past the guards."

The blonde nodded. "Yup, exactly. But I bet they don't check for a plain old bunshin. Nobody's stupid enough to try _that_, right?" He grinned slightly at her disbelieving expression. "They can check the bunshin, and when those go poof, they're gonna wanna search, right? So, since I can only make like twenty bunshin instead of just one, I'll make a bunch that look like _real _ANBU, and when they both leave to try and fight, we go in."

It was crazy. And it was desperate. There was practically no _way_ that it could work, not if the ROOT members were even halfway competent.

It was also the only plan that seemed to have a chance at all, considering they only had the skill level of fairly talented six year olds.

_Benten-sama, I know I'm not a very good follower, but I'm praying for your favor today. Please lend us some luck..._

* * *

"Alright, kid. Repeat it one more time. Make sure you've got it _perfectly_."

With a put-upon sigh, Haku puffed out his cheeks and recited, for the fifth time in the last hour, "I will not join in on Zabuza-sama's fight. I will not leave Chojuro-san's side. I will only help if it's _absolutely necessary_ and there's _no possible way_ for anyone to know where it's coming from. I will _only_ try to bring the children over to me if they're close by and it's convenient. I am _not_ allowed to get hurt, _at all_, _or else_..."

Mei watched with open amusement as the tiny boy shed his shy demeanor while he focused on Zabuza, who was doing a horrible job of pretending not to be worried about having him near the ambush when it began. _Too bad he's out in River, Kisame would've loved to see this,_ she thought, her ever-present smile stretching a bit wider. _He's fussing like a mother hen while he's got Kubikiri Houcho slung over one shoulder... Heh._

Her eyes slid, unbidden, to the tree where a boy slightly older than Haku with short, tufty blue hair, dark eyes, and square-shaped glasses was doing a good impression of a ripe tomato under the tender mercies of her grandmother and aunt. The redheaded woman shook her head slightly, bemused; at age ten, Chojuro had the physical strength of two grown men, the frame of a twelve year old girl, and the disposition of a young shrine maiden. It was an odd contrast, and in the two years that she'd been mentoring the genin, she still had yet to find a cause for his personality.

"Mei, Zabuza, the escort group has been spotted!" Came a sudden call. Ao leaped down from his position in the trees easily, landing in front of Mei with his face still turned in the direction where the enemy was headed from. "They'll be passing within forty feet of us in approximately two minutes."

"Into your positions," Ruriko calmly ordered, stepping away from Chojuro and allowing the boy to scurry over to the other child in the clearing. "Masks on, everyone."

As she took up her position in one of the low branches of a tree, Mei grimaced, but followed her grandmother's order. For this 'mission' of theirs, she and her Kiri counterparts had forced themselves into a generic Kiri shinobi uniform, which consisted of gray and black camouflage pants with a pinstriped blue shirt of some type, along with bandannas and any other accessories necessary to hide their identity from the convoy. To go along with these, Zabuza had somehow produced several blank white masks with no markings besides the Kiri symbol on the forehead. It would be stupid to openly rebel against Yagura at the moment, so this was their only option.

She still hated it.

The next minute or so passed in tense, anticipatory silence as her family members took up positions in the trees while Zabuza and Ao kept themselves close to the ground, waiting for the convoy to draw closer to them. In the back of her mind, she could practically see Chojuro taking on a familiar blank expression and drawing the long sword he wielded, and probably stepping in front of young Haku, who she doubted had seen a real shinobi battle before. It almost made her sad, to think of the innocence being spoiled right behind her, but she supposed it would've happened sooner or later. Zabuza wasn't called the Demon of the Bloody Mist for no reason, after all.

The first Root scout appeared in her field of vision, and her emotions finally settled as she silently gathered a wobbling ball of water from the misty atmosphere into her hand, before using her chakra to form a whip. The operative didn't really have a chance to fight back as the water, sharper than a blade while under her control, severed his head from his body. Blood sprayed into the air, but a bit more water manipulation easily dispersed it as the two sections of the body were caught by her uncle Hachigo, who'd been positioned underneath her in the tree for that exact purpose.

The mist began to thicken with a whisper and several hand seals from Ao as the sound of many feet clumsily pushing through mud became prevalent in the air. Inhaling deeply, Mei finally closed her eyes, knowing they would be useless in the coming venture. All Kiri-nin mastered the art of silent killing before leaving the academy, so this was an exercise she could do in her sleep; but silent killing wasn't the mode today. The mist was just a distraction this time.

Below her, the entire procession pulled to an awkward halt as one of the two Root members leading it suddenly found himself without any arms. His anguished scream signaled the true beginning of the battle, which wasn't a fight so much as it was a slaughter. As all of her team members finally left their positions, the cold air of the clearing soon became superheated as her aunt and grandmother began using their signature jutsu to first drive the shinobi away from the frightened children, and then attack in earnest.

Mei found herself ducking and weaving away from the frantic slashes of a wakizashi, being wielded with surprising skill by a Root member that couldn't be any older than Chojuro, based on size. Still, when the opening came, she didn't hesitate to swoop forward and lift her leg for a brutal dropkick, followed by a ball of lava to the face that burned straight through the mask and into the skull of the girl, who died almost instantly even as her body still twitched.

As she moved away from the body, however, she was caught with a powerful double-fist to the back that sent her stumbling, but only long enough for her to use a kawarimi to get out of range. Her attacker turned out to be an icy-faced young man with a slash on his face that coincided with the amount of force necessary to break through a standard ANBU mask. A glance further as she raised her arms to block the continued, unusually strong taijutsu attacks revealed that Chojuro had herded most of the children over to Haku, who seemed to be protecting them with a somewhat impenetrable dome of ice. It wasn't long before, as she ducked to avoid a high kick, the blue-haired boy came to her rescue and sliced straight through her opponent with almost no effort.

He glanced at her, seeming concerned, but quickly darted away once he realized that the blood across her front came from the man he'd just bisected rather than any wound of her own. The sound of metal clashing drew her attention away from him, to the two Root members working in concert to try and take down Zabuza, who she could recognize for the low chuckling that echoed across the small battlefield. He always _had_ enjoyed a good fight.

As most of her family joined in on herding the children away from the battle, Mei hurried to assist her grandmother with the largest Root member she'd seen so far, who moved surprisingly fast for someone the size of a small giant. He wielded a blade that would've given him a chance against Zabuza, but was mostly useless against the agile Ruriko, who simply continued to dodge until she found an opening in his defense, much the same way that Mei fought.

With their combined efforts, the hulking figure literally went down smoking as a small, concentrated field of acid burned away at him, until his screams finally died out as his brain was eroded into nothing but sludge and spinal fluid. A cut off scream turned her head, where she found Zabuza standing atop a decapitated body while Chojuro was calmly wiping his blade off with the cottoned black uniform of another cut down Root operative.

"That was all twelve of them," Ao reported as the after-battle jitters began to slowly exit the fighters' bodies. Mei hadn't seen him from most of the fight; he took being a shinobi seriously, after his time during the Third Great War, and preferred to work from the shadows. It was a painfully effective method. "All of the children were recovered. Most of them are unharmed, but there are some minor injuries, according to Haku."

It was hard to miss the look Zabuza immediately shot towards Haku, who was sweating lightly as he slowly de-created the shield made of ice that he'd used to keep the children together during the brief but bloody fight. The man seemed to assess the boy in a single glance before relaxing almost unnoticeably and muttering what sounded suspiciously similar to 'brat' under his breath.

"I've been getting into far too many conflicts this year," Ruriko muttered quietly, eying the scene as two of her daughters began gathering the bodies for disposal. "It seems that a decade of relative peace was my limit." She sighed.

Stepping closer to her grandmother, Mei leaned her head on the shorter woman's shoulder and smiled. "But obaasan, just look at you! You've managed to keep so flexible and strong all this time, shouldn't you be proud of yourself?"

Grinning suddenly, the energy seemed to return to the woman. "_Shannaro!_ I'll never lose my beauty and figure, Mei-chan!" The two began laughing with each other.

_Dear lord, Mei actually _inherited_ the crazy. I thought she was just cheerful on her own,_ Ao thought, his expression matching the exasperated one that Zabuza wore as he turned and began marching over to the children, or more accurately, Haku. He eyed the smaller boy at his side warily, before sighing as Chojuro seemed to turn red while watching his mentor. _This kid needs to man up already!_

"So what exactly are you going to do with all these brats?" Zabuza spoke, absently shifting the mask onto the side of his head. "Yagura will just ship them off again if we bring 'em back." His eyes slid over to Haku, who was fingering the mask on his face thoughtfully, and he grimaced behind the bandages over his mouth and jaw. "Oi, kid, take that off. It looks creepy on you."

The mask was gently removed, revealing a smiling Haku despite his shaky demeanor as he glanced at the bodies being burned in the background. "I liked the mask, Zabuza-sama." For some reason, he'd felt much safer with it covering his face during the battle than he would've normally. "May I please keep it?"

"Eh... Whatever floats your boat, kid."

"Oh, he's so cute!"

As they began the slow process of calming the children and starting the move back towards the shore, leaving nothing but darkened mud and slashed trees behind, the group failed to notice a single orange-masked figure sitting in the high branches of a tree, watching the whole thing as it happened.

_How interesting. You've been a naughty, naughty girl, Mei-chan. Perhaps I will start hinting to Yagura-kun that one of his soldiers isn't behaving..._ With that thought, Madara faded away with all the speed of leaves on the autumn wind.

_Oooh, I bet he's gonna be really interested in this! Candy, here I come! _In the underbrush, a dark orange toad disappeared with a silenced puff of smoke.

* * *

"Danzo-sama."

The elderly man almost growled as the fourth Root member in the last hour entered his office. He recognized the mask, as well as the fairly distinct fluffy green hair splaying out behind it. "Don't tell me that Unit Three needs more help than sub-unit B has already provided?"

The masked operative shook his head. "Iie. Unit Eight failed to rendezvous an hour ago. Unit Eight sub-unit C crossed the water in order to search for what might be holding them up, and found nothing at the scene but signs of a battle with one or more fire users. The children were nowhere to be found and the trail couldn't be tracked past an opposing shore on Mizu."

Clenching his fists together so hard that the nails pierced his skin, Danzo focused his gave on the wooden grains of his desk and tried to control his breathing. He'd been counting on the group from Kirigakure to come through, even if his efforts in River, Rice and Marsh country weren't received quite as well. _Madara!_ He thought fiercely, fighting down a scowl. _I should've known better than to trust in your word!_ "Another twelve gone," he muttered to himself. "I _need_ more recruits. Perhaps the children here now won't be seeing the light of day as soon as I'd intended..."

It was at that exact moment that an explosion went off so hard that he could feel the ground shaking. His first thought was, _What the hell was that!_ The second thought, however, was that he needed to get _out_ of there, as soon as possible. "You!" He barked to the agent on the floor. "Gathering every other member you can find and call code white! Rendezvous is two weeks!"

"Hai, Danzo-sama! And the children?"

He scowled. "Try and get the Uchiha experiments. As for the others, well, if they're worth anything, they'll make it out alive. Go now!"

"Hai, Danzo-sama!"

* * *

Sakura only spent a moment to stare, aghast, at the huge crater that Naruto had created with a stolen exploding tag. _Stealth just went out the window!_ She thought. "Come on!" Without waiting for a response, she latched tightly onto Naruto's hand and began running back in the direction they'd come from. The corridors were becoming louder even as they ran; a sharp, shrill whistling sound echoed for just a few seconds, before the lights in the tunnel flared brighter than they'd been before and there was a sudden stampede of confused, crying children who'd just been awakened and released from confinement quite suddenly.

The lack of Root members startled her for all of a few seconds as she and Naruto skidded to a stop in the crowded hall of open doors and confused, wailing figures. _They evacuated and didn't even think about rescuing them!_ With her sudden anger fueling her, she yelled at the top of her lungs, "_Everybody calm down!"_ Next to her, Naruto clapped his hands to his ears as the sounds suddenly fell to an almost negligible level. "We need to get out of here, so everybody line up and follow me!"

The simple order worked surprisingly well, and Sakura spared a moment to wonder whether her prayer to Lady Fortune had actually been answered.

_**Well, we got in with that impossible plan, didn't we?**_ Inner Sakura spoke up, appearing as a ghostly guardian over the children while Sakura and Naruto led them through the twisting maze of already-sprung traps that made up the underground Root base.

_True. Thank goodness this will all be over soon..._

There was a scream behind her, and mentally, Sakura cursed as she spun around. _Why did I fucking jinx myself?_ Naruto caught onto the situation before she could even react, and within moments, he'd all but hopped over the heads of the other children to reach the back of the double lines they'd all formed and threw all of his small amount of weight into the Root member that had dropped from the ceiling and nearly apprehended a brown haired girl at the very back of the line.

In a startling move, the girl assisted Naruto, twisting and biting and scratching until she was dropped. It was then that she looked up to reveal a pair of underdeveloped _Sharingan_ with large circles instead of tomoe, and Sakura felt her insides freeze. _There's more going on than I thought..._

In her inattention, Sakura found herself being scooped up all of a sudden, and she went with her own first instinct of screaming and clawing, before mentally slapping herself. It only took a small bit of effort for her to call up a formless chakra scalpel around her hand, which she slashed over the Root member's throat, severing arteries from the inside. She went tumbling into the ground, and almost crashed into a civilian boy that she vaguely recognized as she rolled to avoid being crushed by the body.

"There, the children!"

A third party entered the narrow battlefield, and it turned out that the civilian boy was her savior, as he gave her the mere moments she needed to transform herself into some nondescript little girl that definitely _wasn't_ Haruno Sakura, civilian, aged six. Somehow, though, she was unsurprised when Naruto somehow managed to scramble back and grasp her by the hand, following her example of throwing up a henge as the entire scene devolved into chaos.

There were Inuzuka trackers, Uchiha Military Police, Hyuuga jounin, ANBU, Root members, and small children all crammed into the tunnels for as far as Sakura could sense. Naruto's explosion had easily gained the attention of the high-strung shinobi outside, even through the downpour, and after one team investigated and found enemies, back-ups had come rushing within a single minute. Even if it wasn't the way Sakura had imagined things going in her mind, the children _had_ been found, and even as she and Naruto were fighting to get away from the chaos, they were being scooped up and removed from the tunnels through any means necessary.

But she couldn't let that happen to them. Sakura wasn't supposed to be here. _Naruto_ wasn't supposed to be here. And if she had her way, they _wouldn't_ be found here. _Please, Benten-sama, just one more shot of luck!_

"This way!" A sudden tug from Naruto had them ducking between the legs of a surprised Military Police officer before they went rushing down a tunnel that was darker than all the others. The two seemed like nothing more than black masses of energy as they came to a sudden drop and went tumbling down, painfully, one after another.

Before she could exclaim anything, however, Naruto was up and scrambling, pulling her along with him. The whiskered blonde seemed to sense where he was going, and Sakura quickly realized that she was almost right. The smell of rain was growing thicker in the air the further they went along the empty corridor, and if she could smell it, Naruto had probably noticed it ages ago.

Sakura had never been so happy to be completely covered in mud as she was when they came scrambling out of an entrance hidden beneath a bush and into the rain that was still pouring. It wasn't the time to stop however. "Come on, let's go before someone comes this way!" She hissed.

The blonde, disguised as a brunette, nodded his head rapidly and soon ended up leading the way as they navigated a downward path of slippery rocks and patches of muddy moss covering the surfaces around them. It could've been a minute or an hour that passed as they made it out of a completely different training ground than the one they'd entered and finally came into the cover of the alleyways created by Konoha's western civilian and market sector.

It was here that they finally managed to stop, both panting for breath and feeling their hearts pound from the pure adrenaline rushing around in their blood. The mud and other substances were slowly being pelted away by the rain as they stood, catching their breath against the wall of a building, leaving them looking like nothing more than two sorry, half-drowned animals of some sort.

"...I thought you didn't like adventures," Naruto accused in a quiet voice after two minutes in which their breathing finally calmed, even if their hearts continued to race faster than normal. "That was the biggest adventure I've ever been on!"

The pink-haired girl stared at her friend in disbelief, and couldn't restrain herself from smacking him in the arm . "Baka! We could've _died_ in there!"

"But we didn't," he replied with a grin. "We _won_, Sakura-chan." She'd never seen his whisker-marks stretched so widely as they were now, and that was saying something, considering all the years of memories she had of being his comrade.

His smile was contagious, and soon, Sakura released her own grin. "Yeah. We did." And then she deflated slightly. "Too bad I'm going to be in so much trouble from running off that I'll be grounded 'til I'm thirty," she mumbled.

"I think you'll be fine," the boy replied, his grin turning mischievous, not for the first time that day. "I know _just_ how to keep you out of trouble."

"...?"

It was nearly hours later before Naruto and Sakura were found on the roof of the orphanage where she was supposed to be, both soaking wet as they pelted random passerby with shots of water from the rainstorm that had died down in the wake of various children being brought back into the village proper and families slowly being moved out of their designated safe locations.

Just as Naruto had said, he knew exactly how to keep her out of trouble; to be specific, he took all the blame for the situation onto himself. Sakura was amused to find that, while he was explaining the situation, Naruto didn't lie once. He broke out of the window himself, found Sakura, and managed to persuade her into getting onto the roof, where they spent several hours in the rain.

He just completely excluded how many hours were spent in the rain, and everything that had happened in the meantime.

She couldn't keep the guilty look off her face as she watched Naruto being scolded alternately by her mother and the Inu masked ANBU that she'd recognized on sight and had to pinch herself to keep from hugging. However, the look in Naruto's eyes kept her from feeling _too_ bad; they were friends, after all, and this was the kind of thing that friends did. They took the blame for each other and kept secrets.

Of course, the way Naruto looked at her and tapped the side of his nose before being carted off by Inu spelled a whole new can of worms just waiting to pop open. It was clear that she would be sharing some secrets in return for this, one way or another.

_Fair's fair, I suppose..._ Which reminded her.

_Thank you, Benten-sama! I promise I'll find a better offering this year!_

* * *

It had taken four days, several children, and nine rogue nin killed in cold blood as he searched the tunnels, but Shibi was finally holding his son in his arms again. He had never been more relieved or more proud in his life. Shino had never been one to cry over things, but hearing from his 'opponents' about the causes of the wounds on his boy's arms showed him that the young heir had far more to him than a fascination with shiny insects and a natural poker face.

Still, as he examined his sleeping child's wrists and looked at the scars from wounds and removed seals that would always be a reminder of the ordeal to his son, all the pride and relief in the world couldn't keep the rage from boiling deep in his spirit. Not a single one of the children remembered exactly who had brought them there or what had happened in the past three days, and the Hokage had decided to stick with that story for the good of the village, even as the quiet addition of Shimura Danzo to the bingo book was swept under the rug. But now that Shibi knew the _root_ of his problem, he knew that he would stop at absolutely nothing to get rid of it.

_Be as slippery as you want, worm. I've marked you as my prey, and I intend to enjoy the meal for as long as I can make it last..._

Shibi knew that he wasn't the only one with a grudge, but he had something that many others didn't.

Information.

"I believe that I will greatly enjoy partaking in _Operation Rabbit Hole_..."

* * *

A/N: Alright, there are definitely going to be errors here. I'm practically asleep right now. But hey, I tried. **How are the fights this time, and what can I do to make them better**? What stupid spelling and grammar mistakes have I missed? What glaring plot-hole did my sleep-deprived mind skip over? What just didn't make any sense?

Thanks for reading!


	19. F o r B e t t e r O r W o r s e

Dear **Everyone** (who actually leaves reviews): My ability to become offended is actually pretty low. So if you corrected me on something and we have a difference of opinions (yes, I'm talking to you, whoever **fsdfsdfsd** is,) I'm not angry or offended or anything if I reply. So don't feel guilty or whatever you do when you think someone is angry at you. Cuz I'm not. If I correct someone, it's like I said: "Just sayin'."

**Also**, don't be late to school/going to sleep because you're reading this. It'll still be here. That's actually the reason I failed my first period class in senior year. It's totally not worth it.

**Thank you for the reviews, everyone!** Although I'm secretly cursing at everyone who only says 'love it' or 'update soon,' I do still appreciate them. Speaking of reviews: on the alleged **Sakura-centric-ness** of this... Well, **it's not **anymore. She's still gonna be a super huge main character, of course, but my ability to focus on a single character for a whole story, or even a whole chapter, is kinda... **Almost nonexistent**. So yeah.

And, uh, **foul-mouth** warning. Just so you know.

* * *

It was two in the morning on a Thursday, and Jinya was had just returned home for the first time in a little over two weeks. His team had been recalled from a courier mission to River Country, and without any downtime, immediately separated into patrol and tracking units. He'd been given the dubious pleasure of working with a team composed entirely of Inuzuka and Hyuuga chuunin, and being the odd man out in such a high tension situation hadn't been very easy. Things had only gotten worse when he overheard the news that a girl, _a little pink-haired girl_, had gone missing from one of the orphanage refuges without a trace.

Of course, it had been less than an hour after he heard that talk second-hand that a huge explosion took over the silence of the village and team after team, his included, was called to begin capture, tracking, and back-up fighting operations. He'd been one of the _lucky_ people sent directly into the tunnels and the embodiment of Chaos. His role wasn't battle so much as support. He helped to evacuate children.

There were healthy, if terrified children. Then there were the ones injured and crying and in shock. Some children were unconscious and so dirty that their status wasn't easily discerned. When the fighting died down some, they discovered _more_ children; the thirty or so reported had already been recovered, but going through rooms and cells and unmasking the small, strange looking Root shinobi had revealed at least thirty more children, seemingly from nowhere... And all of them were in far worse condition than the original group.

Just thinking of the hours he'd spent in the tunnels was enough to make his stomach turn, but he'd already thrown up the rations he'd been surviving on, so all he could do was fight the urge to dry heave and continue to follow orders. Even though Jin had been a shinobi for nearly a year, he still found it in himself to be disgusted by some of the things they encountered in the profession.

And yet... What bothered him most wasn't the children he'd seen or the lack of sleep he had or his nausea or the sight of so many dead and incapacitated nin all over the tunnels. Rather, it was a little thing that he'd found on one of his runs between the Tower and Training Ground Twelve. A trinket, really; a flash of gold that had caught his attention from the corner of his eye, which he'd stopped to pick up.

It was a little golden locket shaped like a cherry blossom.

For sixteen hours, now, Jinya had been painfully aware of the little golden piece sitting in his kunai holster, where he'd hastily shoved it after realizing exactly where he recognized it from. Focusing on his work since that time had been nearly impossible as the questions kept running through his mind, over and over, with the imaginary answers only becoming worse and worse as time progressed.

Luckily, his inattention was the norm for most of the people who'd seen what was going on in the tunnels. Being dazed was perfectly acceptable, just for that day, and his temporary commanding officer hadn't given him any problems when he finally gave up on concentration and asked to be released to go home, where his mother and the sister that he'd been assured _wasn't_ missing and _wasn't_ one of the children recovered from the base were waiting.

So now, he was in his house at two in the morning, standing to the side of the bed where his imouto slept peacefully, looking down at those innocent features and going through the worst dilemma of his life. _Do I really want to know...?_ He wondered. _Imouto-chan... She's still Sakura-hime... That hasn't changed, but..._

Jinya clutched the gold trinket in his hand tighter, ignoring the pain as the pointed tips of the flower shape stabbed his palm. _Itachi-san is so sure that she's a genius... And I know there's no way that she's an impostor or assassin. She _is_ Sakura-chan. Yet... What if we were wrong? What if she's not any of those...?_

He had to force his body to comply, but finally, he knelt to the side of his baby sister and reaching for the deceptively innocent golden chain around her neck. He just needed to know one thing. He just needed to see that it was all a misunderstanding, and this wasn't his sister's locket, and she hadn't been in those tunnels and somehow escaped, and she was just a little genius, like he'd always known she would be...

One tanned hand lifted the golden chain gently from her neck, tugging, so that he could see that his imouto definitely _wasn't_ some new Root recruit in disguise. Her locket would still be there. He was hold some fake, or a copy, or something from another little girl with a cherry blossom locket...

And, staring at the necklace that was painfully devoid of any cherry blossom shaped locket, Jinya tried to tell himself that there wasn't ice in his veins and he was _wrong_ and perhaps she'd lost it some other time and one of those other children that Danzo had recruited had just picked it up in the park and kept it and dropped it and _Sakura was not a Root member please no...!_

It was a numb boy that gently clipped the locket back onto the gold necklace, completing the image that he'd been wishing to see from the start. He stayed numb as he slowly stood and crept back out of the room, made it to the bathroom, and began setting up for the long, hot shower that he'd been missing for two weeks. _Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it,_ he repeated to himself.

_...I can't.._.

_Just... Hime-chan isn't Root._

_This is just a big misunderstanding._

_I'll figure this out and everything will be alright again..._

_...I'm not in shock..._

No, he definitely wasn't in shock. But as he stood under the spray of the shower, clenching and unclenching one of his fists, Jin was displeased to find that he'd skipped straight into anger. He always seemed to get angry before any other emotions could be processed, but this was an instance where anger wouldn't help him at all. He needed to be clear headed. He needed to _think_ and _observe_. And besides that, where was he going to turn this anger building up inside of him? He had no _outlet_, and that didn't bode well for anyone.

His anger had always been ugly to see.

Rather abruptly, the boy reached out and turned the knob for the shower from hot to cold. The physical shock was horrible and perfect all at once, because cooling down was just what he needed.

_This isn't the time to think about this,_ the white haired boy decided. Aloud, he told himself, "I'm going to stop thinking of this. I'll clear my mind and I'll go to sleep. No thoughts." _No thoughts, no thoughts, no thoughts..._

_...This has got to be my worst birthday ever._

* * *

"There are seven toddlers, nineteen young children, thirteen adolescents and _counting_, not including the eighteen or so Root members unmasked and sent to the deprogrammers. About a fourth of them have been experimented on in some way, and their chances of survival aren't too good. A good half of them don't know their surnames, let alone where the hell they've been pulled from. The _only_ great territories that haven't been plucked are Kaminari, Tsuchi and Mizu no Kuni, and my toads are saying that's because those squads got completely decimated before they could reach borders," Jiraiya reported with a grim expression. "And if you think that's bad... I hate to say it, sensei, but this whole thing is just one part of something that had to be in the works for a good _while_ now. I don't know how the hell my spy network didn't pick it up."

"That's because this part _wasn't_ planned," Nara Shikaku spoke up from the chair he was unceremoniously slumped in, an ice pack on the side of his face and his eyes closed. "We've been cracking down on Shimura's operations _specifically_ for a good four, almost five months now. There were only three major operations going on. One was something to do with adding fuel to the Kiri situation, which nobody can get real info on because they're closed off. The second one was an aborted 'recruitment drive' from some place in Nami which decimated part of his forces. The last major operation had to do with the Uchiha unrest, and that one was only in the idea stages. There were also whispers of Orochimaru trying to make contact. This was last minute. Something or some_one_ either spooked him or started rushing him."

The Toad Sage glanced at the man, then crossed his arms tighter across his chest, feeling his already pursed lips tighten even more. "You make a good point, but right now, we can't afford to focus on every single reason behind his actions. It's the repercussions that are gonna bite us in the ass. Konoha has been on lock down for a week, nothing in, and nothing out. We're only just sending out feelers. But considering how quickly we tend to recover from things, what do you think the scene is in every other territory?"

All around the crowded office, faces began to pale as the implications truly started to sink in.

"Yeah, you've got it," Jiraiya continued, becoming more grim if possible. "Borders everywhere are shutting down, not just in the hidden villages. There's no trade going on anywhere. And the fingers are already being pointed left and right. Kusa and Taki have already started to team up in preparation for conflict, Ame is even more closed off if possible, and every source I've been able to reach on such short notice is saying that this whole thing was the edge necessary to make Suna start to consider taking up Iwa and Ishi on their alliance offer. If Danzo was trying to instigate a war, well, he's done a damn good job of it. Hell... Just looking at these numbers, it's not so hard to believe that he was trying to build an army in the first place."

"It wouldn't surprise me at all..." Sarutobi sighed, folding his hands beneath his chin and staring at the uncharacteristically paperwork-free top of his desk. _I had hoped that I would pass on long before having to face another such conflict. But it simply wasn't meant to be, was it?_ Hardening his features, he looked back up at the gathering of his top shinobi. "I will call an emergency council session five hours from now. I expect all of you to be in attendance with your own reports and ideas. It seems that Konoha must once again do combat in order to gain peace. Dismissed."

"Hai, Hokage-sama!"

* * *

Rice Country had never been the richest of places, but it had never been _poor_ either. It was a land of small families, farms, and disconnected communities of people that didn't care much for the world outside their own land. Despite, or perhaps _due to_ the fact that it was a major exporter of grain products and different types of alcohol, Rice Country had never been targeted for either take-over or pure sabotage.

Danzo could see why Orochimaru had decided to make this the base for the village he was creating, but that didn't mean that he had to appreciate it. Getting into Rice Country without being seen was fairly impossible, especially when one was attempting to do so with an entourage of dirty, weary nin following right behind. Luckily, his Root members were all highly proficient in stealth and surviving less-than-pleasant conditions for long periods of time. It was just the way that shinobi should truly be; quiet, fierce, and impossible to track.

As he stood before the looming gates of what could only be the newly-built Otogakure, however, the old man couldn't help but silently yearn for his underground base, which had almost been a _true_ hidden village all on its' own. He yearned for the days where the villages didn't make false attempts at _friendship_ and _allegiance_, when hidden villages were truly _hidden_, and nobody cared about making their every action _polite_ or _moral_. The world should be focused on _strength_... But no, it wasn't to be.

While being escorted through the village to the familiar-looking Tower in the center, the man found himself restraining a sneer at every building he passed. _Does Orochimaru think of any of this as secure? Where are the sentries? Why are such weak materials being used to reinforce these buildings? It wouldn't survive a siege from two weak genin teams!_ He wouldn't even get started on the three pitiful _children_ escorting him through the city. _They didn't even check us for weapons. I could be armed with two-hundred explosive tags, ready to destroy this _hovel_, and he would be none the wiser._ He scowled. _You trained a damned fool, Sarutobi!_

Considering the village, the shinobi, and the experiments he was prone to, it was no wonder that Orochimaru was so desperate for allies and shinobi that he wanted Danzo to capture children in return for an alliance. Not for the first time, the man wished that he'd ignored Madara's urgings to deal with the snake sannin; if he had held out a short while longer, he could've rebuilt his own small army in secret and had the traitor practically begging for any concessions.

_The failure with those cursed Karibi drove me over. I let my anger get the best of me, and it made me into a fool. Madara and Orochimaru be damned; I will rise up from this stronger than ever, and I'll retake my place in Konoha, to build it back to the power it should truly be! No ancient fool or traitorous snake will ever convince me to change my plans again..._

* * *

"...you sure that you can't remember what village you came from, little girl? We are doing our very best to return each of you to where you belong, and if you could even tell us what the buildings look like, it would be very helpful."

"For the last _fucking_ time, I don't _fucking_ know, you cocksucker! Can't you go ask stupid as shit questions to one of those other little twats in the room! Shit, I don't even wanna go back to that fucking hell. Put me in the fucking orphanage and let's be done with it! _Shit!_" Without further adieu, the small redheaded girl flipped the bird at the man who'd been questioning her for the last ten minutes and turned on her heel, marching off to a more deserted part of the huge room she was in.

_Why the fuck didn't you just hide, Tayuya?_ She asked herself, crossing her arms across her chest as she sat in a corner and glared poutily at the rest of the room, full to the brim with children and the adults questioning them. _I'm starting to think it would've been better to just stay with my whore of a mother! Bitch will probably just die without me bringing her food, anyways..._

Briefly, the nine year old stopped to wonder if she should feel _bad_ about that. However, shortly after the thought crossed her mind, she caught sight of yet another _kind_, _well-meaning_ adult heading in her direction, and completely discarded her contemplations as she tried to see if he would stop at one of the other clusters of children waiting to either be sorted into a new group, returned home, or marked down for the orphanage.

...Yeah, the man was definitely heading straight to her. She sighed.

_Why can't they just take a damn hint?_

* * *

"_I commit to never leave you, to follow you. For where you go, I shall go, and where you remain, I shall remain. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Where you die, I shall die and be buried beside you..."_

Nadeshiko remembered her wedding vows very clearly. Especially the parts about unconditional love and _til death do us part_. Somehow, though, she couldn't remember the part of the vows that covered betrayal, forgiveness, and eventually spying on normal-seeming people who were supposedly spies themselves. The day that she received that damnable black envelope would forever be the worst one of her life, and she couldn't decide if it was because of her husband's supposed death or the fact that he was alive (and, of course, all that came with _that_ bit.)

Haru no Cha, her tea shop, had been her pride and joy for more than a decade. It was her home away from home, her method of relaxation, the culmination of the skills she'd worked so hard to cultivate while growing up surrounded by shinobi family members.

Until, quite suddenly, it wasn't.

For three and a half months, her humble little shop had been bugged with tiny audio receivers, tags that disrupted certain types of jutsu, and unremarkable shinobi turned regular customers. The things that she heard during her time as a 'spy' would probably never leave her mind; her only solace had been that her daughter had recently begun to play with her peers, and tended to spend her days outside, far from any potential conflicts that might brew inside her shop. The weeks of rain during which her daughter had been in the back room were some of the most stressful of her life, and that was _before_ she found out that her baby was spitting out fireballs when she wasn't looking.

She could still remember the days when Sakura wouldn't go near the oven for fear that her baby dolls might be hurt. Her daughter had gone from painfully shy, hiding her face with her hair, to wearing loud colors and spending her days running around and wrestling with her friends, just like 'one of the boys.' Nadeshiko was happy that her child had finally come out of her shell, but every scratch and bruise left her heart palpitating with worry.

According to the man standing in front of her counter, however, a bruise would be nothing compared to what Sakura would endure if Nadeshiko didn't agree to turn her life even more upside-down that it already seemed to be. "I... Excuse me?"

The dark haired man smiled at her, gray eyes showing a strange mix of amusement and threat. "You're very excused, Haruno-san. Allow me to repeat myself: one month from now, two women will come to sit at your counter. One will have green eyes and black hair. The other will be known to you by the dragons on her earrings. You will give them my message, and then you will listen to their response and memorize it for the time when I return." His eyes went down, locking onto the wide green eyes of Sakura, who was clinging to her mother's dress and shaking slightly. "I have had some bad meetings with a few of your sisters, and I've been hoping not to continue that trend, especially with young Sakura-chan here." The wide smile he gave her was humorless. "Please rest assured that you were watched for quite a while before I decided on you, and there is nothing you can do to run or hide. Besides, it isn't such a mean request, is it? Just some words. Easy."

_Why is this happening to me?_ Nadeshiko thought, her mind in a numb state even as she pushed Sakura behind her and shakily took the folded square of paper the man was pushing across the table. _I just wanted... A simple life... For me, for Daisuke-kun, for my babies... What did I do deserve everything that's happened lately...?_ Her eyes followed the man as he bowed slightly and walked out with a lukewarm cup of tea in his hands. _...I need to talk to Daisuke-kun. It's been long enough. I can't... This... I need my husband..._

Sakura didn't try to get her mother's attention as she was shuffled into the back room of the tea-shop, the same place that her mother had been keeping her out of since the day that she'd been found attempting fire techniques. She couldn't seem to care about the way she had her forehead kissed and a small container of lunch set down before being left alone; her mind was too busy trying and failing to figure out what she could've done to cause this.

It had been apparent to her for a while that not all of the changes she inadvertently made had good results, but this was something unprecedented. Her mother was a _civilian_. She ran slowly, fidgeted when she was nervous, wore all her emotions on her sleeve, and had a high tendency to gossip about any and _every_thing that she found interesting. Why would they choose her?

_**And what can you do to stop it as soon as possible? **_Her inner voice interrupted the thought trail, appearing across the room with a fierce expression on that familiar face. Her inner self showed all the anger and rage boiling in her that she couldn't seem to feel. It was comforting, in a strange way. _**Jinya has been acting strange lately. What if he was threatened too? What if that man is holding more over okaasan's head than what he said? We need to do something!**_

"Like what?" Sakura hissed under her breath, staring down at the unopened bento box and beginning to feel nauseous. "What can I do? I'm _six_. How am I supposed to h-help okaasan and niisan and everyone?" Her voice cracked halfway through the sentence, and she was dismayed to find tears welling up in her eyes. "Everything I do turns out badly. Otousan, Danzo and Root, this war that everybody is trying to pretend isn't going to happen... What was the point in coming back? I'm only making things _worse_..."

_**Shut up.**_ The low, almost growled words startled her out of her quiet fit. She looked up, and found herself on the receiving end of one of her mean glares for the first time ever. _**What kind of kunoichi are you? Crying and whining and saying you can't do anything, you're acting just as bad as we did when we were twelve! We promised, **_**swore**_**, that we would never be weak again, so shut off those tears and stop acting like a baby. This isn't the time. Right now, you need to think, and starting looking at what you **_**can**_** do.**_

As harsh as the words were, especially coming from _herself_, Sakura found herself feeling better as she absorbed them. _Yeah... You're right. It's just so hard..._ Shaking her head, she focused back on the lunch box, and opened it up so that she could begin to eat while she brainstormed.

_What _can_ I do...?_

* * *

"I have to admit... I'm troubled today, Itachi-san," Jinya began, choosing his words slowly and carefully. "I think I've found something too big and too painful to carry by myself. I'm hoping that I'm wrong, but if I'm right..." The white haired boy paused, staring at the muddy ground in front of him with a quiet, fierce intensity as he tried to reign in his emotions. "...If I'm right, I don't know what I'm going to do."

Blinking a few times, Itachi remained silent as he took in the words. _So this is what's been bothering him..._ He sincerely hoped it wasn't anything too damaging, although considering the tone and Jinya's mood, he wasn't betting on anything. _Guard duty isn't really the time to be discussing such a thing... But then, what better time could their be? Everyone has been so busy lately. It's only chance that had us taking guard shift at the same time..._ "I'm listening."

Jin hesitated. Saying it aloud would be like _accepting_ that it might actually be true. And yet... _I really can't handle this on my own._ "...I found something at the site that day. When I was going between the evacuation site and base." He paused, letting his companion's acknowledging 'hm' drift over the air between them. "It was Sakura-hime's locket. From her necklace."

At the words, Itachi very suddenly started, taking his eyes off the clear skies and muddy ground and instead focusing them on Jin, who had slumped and taken on a somewhat agonized expression. Briefly, the Uchiha scion checked the area around them for anyone else, even though it was a given that it would be empty, considering it was Konoha's least used gate and four in the morning. "...You verified this completely?"

He threw the other boy a somewhat dirty look before focusing on the empty road before them again. "Hai. Same locket. Same inscription. Same scruff marks. And when I checked that night, she only had the chain without the locket. The breaks matched."

Itachi rolled this over in his mind, but found himself unable to reconcile the image of his baby brother's clumsy playmate with one of the emotionless, socially awkward children that had been found inside Danzo's lair. "The image doesn't fit."

Somehow, hearing Itachi reaffirm what he'd already thought and hoped for made Jin's shoulders feel lighter. "I know. Sakura-chan hasn't been out of anyone's sight for the length of time that would need. And none of those children led 'normal' lives at all. But... It leaves things missing. I don't want to just..." He struggled to find words, and after half a minute, simply gave up. "It doesn't make any sense. At all."

"Un..." Crossing his arms over his chest and staring at the road even as his mind wandered, Itachi turned the situation over in his head, analyzing what he knew about Jin, Sakura, and Root so far. "...When was the last time you saw her with the locket?"

"Ano..." Frowning, Jinya searched his memories. He frowned more, if possible, when he came to his answer. "I distinctly remember her fiddling with it earlier that morning, around 0300 hours, when I was on break between patrols and I stopped to see her and okaasan at the orphanage."

_And coincidentally, your sister goes missing in the same time frame that the hideout is somehow compromised and an explosive of unknown origins goes off, only to show up again well after everything is said and done, with a not-so-solid alibi..._ With a glance at his friend's face, Itachi knew that Jinya had come to the same half-conclusion and was equally disturbed by the implications. "This is not the best topic to speak of during guard duty."

"Un..." The boy nodded slightly in reply, his eyes a bit glazed over as he focused on nothing, thinking. _What's going on with you, hime?_

* * *

A/N: ...I hurt. Can anyone tell that I haven't planned this fic at all?


	20. R e a d y S e t

Why do so many people seem to think that I'll just **randomly discontinue this story**? I'm confused. I've gotten like ten different reviews/messages about that... Is the update date just not changing or something...? Eh. In any case, I'm just kinda slugging it through my **midterms** and **term projects** right now, so... Lo siento.

Also, props to **princess-kally** for teaching me that it's supposed to be 'Roseate' (didn't know it existed) instead of 'Rosette' (which is not for colors.) I'm too lazy to change old chapters, but I'll include that from here on out.

And **BIG props** to **Angurvddel**, who really helped me clear my head and gave me some ideas on how to work this story that I found extremely helpful. Thank you!

Oh yeah. The **weird looking chapter titles**... Well, in truth, **that's just me being a dick**. Sorry. Well, no, I'm not really sorry, but still. Meh.

* * *

"...Aniki...?"

It was something of an auto-reaction for Jinya to unwrap himself from his blankets and half-mumble, half-hiss for Sakura to close the door before the moonlight could make him any more awake that he suddenly found himself. It was also automatic for him to reach out and pull her up onto the bed once she got close enough, although somewhere in his hazy mind, he noticed that she'd gotten taller. Mostly, though, he was ready to go back to wrap the covers around them again and go back to sleep, as soon as she finally knocked out. "Oyasumi, imouto," he mumbled.

"Niisan, matte," came the whispered plea.

The shift in his established routine made Jinya pause, before he forcibly opened his eyes and tried not to shudder at the patch of moonlight from the window across the room. He focused, instead, on his sister. He awakened a lot more when he realized that her expression was somewhere between frightened and worried. _This... Isn't about a nightmare._ Nightmares didn't scare Sakura, not anymore. They just made it hard for her to go back to sleep.

"What's wrong, Sakura?" Part of him was hoping that it was about the cave and her presence within it so many days ago, but another part still shied away from even considering it. It was strange to be in denial and recognize it the whole time. "Daijoubu ka?"

Sakura looked up at him with big green eyes full of conflict, and the white haired teen was startled to realize that he hadn't seen her looking so hesitant for almost a year. _Almost since the day she first saw Naruto-kun in the library,_ he thought, torn between surprise and a new set of worries at the revelation. _Why...?_ His attention was drawn back to the present when she finally decided to speak.

"Y-yesterday... Yesterday, okaasan, she..." Sakura faltered. _Am I really doing the right thing?_ She wondered. _Niisan is only eleven..._ Quickly, however, she remembered that _she_ was only _six_. At least Jinya was already a shinobi. "There was this man, talking to okaasan at the tea shop..."

Something in Jin relaxed at that beginning to the tale, even as something else tensed. _Maybe some guy out there is interested in okaasan? _He missed his father, still, but he couldn't say that he didn't expect someone to trying moving in on his mother now that she was 'unattached.' It was nothing to worry about, probably.

And _then_ Sakura finished up what she was saying. "...And he was saying that, that, that okaasan has to pass on this paper, and if she doesn't, he'll come hurt me, and, and, he said he's been _watching_ her and us and our house and the school and you and everything and that he _knows_ that we can't go anywhere and that okaasan can't tell anyone, and, and, okaasan told me not to tell anyone but I had to tell you Jinya because okaasan was scared and you have to help her!" She hadn't intended to stumble her words, but every time she thought about the encounter, the fear and guilt and shock rose up again from the tight reigns she'd been trying to keep them under and she ended up panicking.

For a moment, Jin's face was eerily blank as he processed the words she was speaking. And then, with motions that Sakura could only register because she'd been training her eyes back into catching high speed movement, he was out of the blanket cocoon and over at the dresser, changing his clothing with shinobi speed and efficiency. Once she got over her startle, she realized he was speaking: "...stay here and go to sleep, Sakura. I promise I'll be back in a little while. Don't go outside."

Before she could even think to protest, he was strapping his hitai-ate onto his forehead and leaping from the window that was never really closed. She worried, and she wondered if she'd done the right thing, and she _prayed_ that telling Jinya about the day before wouldn't somehow hasten the death of a person she cared about. And then, she lay down, hugged her brother's pillow, and tried to go to sleep.

She had a lot of things to start tomorrow, and no lack of sleep was going to stop her.

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen had done a lot of things for Konoha in his life, which was exceedingly long for someone in the shinobi profession. Wars, bombings, assassinations, guard duty, cross dressing, cooking, brainwashing, spying... At his age, and with his experiences, he gotten very used to assuming that no matter what came along, he would be able to handle it just fine, because there was almost nothing he couldn't look at and say 'been there, done that.'

Of course, after the year he'd been having so far, the Sandaime was very quick to let go of that philosophy. Between the mystery gift scrolls, civilians turned spy, spies turned children, and everything else, it was obviously obsolete, and really, things were bad enough _without_ him jinxing himself. _Somehow though,_ he thought, _I can't imagine anything managing to beat this out..._

In his hands, he held two letters. He couldn't decide which one of the two he liked the least, mostly because he couldn't decide which one of the two was more damnably helpful to him in the long run.

The first one was a short, anonymous note: _"Haruno Nadeshiko, civilian, middle class, widow of former council member Haruno Daisuke. Unknown assailant, non-physical threat, go-between and note. Haru no Cha, fourteen-fifty-seven, two days ago... Uchiha Yashiro, chuunin, lower clan member, clan council member. Second in command of Konoha Military Police. And Uchiha Tekka, chuunin, lower clan member, clan council member. Member of Konoha Military police. Three relations, direct contact. Mizu no Kuni, Pad Village and Kusa no Kuni, Bikusho Commonwealth. September 2nd."_

It was a simple note with simple information. He'd known about Nadeshiko, from the woman herself, then Morino Ibiki, and then her young son only the day before. He'd also known an inkling of the two Uchiha leaks, because even as spy after spy was removed by Operation Rabbit Hole, a new agent, loyal to Sarutobi, took over each 'identity' in order to expand his own personal spy network. It was fairly easy to do so, as well, because every successfully deprogrammed spy was a new addition to Konoha's forces, which had slowly been rebuilding since the Kyuubi attack.

The problem with the note, which was ironically enough the same reason he trusted it, came in the way that it was coded. Exactly three people knew this code; not including himself, Jiraiya had no need to send anonymous notes to him, and Tsunade, in addition to wanting nothing to do with her birth village, was currently touring Kaze no Kuni, to his knowledge. Seeing as the only student Jiraiya had taught the code to had been dead for nearly six years and Tsunade's only student was also in Kaze, it left him with quite the conundrum when it came to searching out the source of it. Not even Kakashi knew this code. Never mind that he had no idea how it had gotten into the pocket of his robes.

If being stuck on that note wasn't enough to push him to a headache, then the official scroll sitting right next to him was the piece de résistance. It was a long, carefully worded letter from the reclusive Land of Iron's leader, who had been contacted by the several village and country leaders, including the Raikage and the Tsuchikage, who both led countries that were on painfully shaky grounds with Konoha. In the barest terms, it was a meeting to discuss the short, recent crisis and the culprits behind it. Read between the lines, however, it was the next step to an all-out war, and more than a few threats were thrown in should Konoha decide to keep to themselves.

Sarutobi had known that the quickest solution to returning the overabundance of children Konoha suddenly found itself full of wasn't going to have the best outcome. Indeed, sending covert teams to slip past borders and leave children in the squares of the towns they'd come from in the middle of the night was a cheap, problem-ridden response. Still, it took care of the worst problem off the bat; making sure that Konoha couldn't be accused as the ones behind the attack, and more than that, making sure that there was absolutely no proof even if they _were_ accused. So, although there were still more children in Konoha than their records could account for, it wasn't enough of a change to be called on. Not unless someone admitted to deep cover spying and took the blame on themselves.

He'd been hoping that there would be at least a month of time for things to settle before any words like this were set up. Inter-village politics made his joints flare up. Barely any time had passed since the last war, let alone the various minor calamities in different countries; nobody was ready for a movement like this. Still, the number of spies _everywhere_ was jumping to all new highs, border securities were still incredibly tight, and trade was only barely picking up from the complete stall it had been in two weeks ago.

"At least this meeting won't happen for quite some time as we organize..." His sad attempt at self-comforting wasn't particularly helpful at all.

_I'm too old for this shit..._

* * *

"...and, well, that's it."

Naruto stared. "...You're not joking," he spoke up after a minute or so of silence, a slightly awed and faintly disturbed tone coloring his voice. "I... You... You're _really not joking_." The whiskered blonde wasn't sure he'd ever heard anything so absurd, so fake-sounding, so _implausible_... And yet, he got the strangest feeling that he was actually being told the _truth_. "...What the hell?"

"_Naruto!_"

"Sakura!" He snapped right back at the pink-haired girl in a loud whisper. "You just told me that you're the old man's student's time traveling jounin student who somehow turned into a six year old to try and save the moon from hypnotizing the world because of Sasuke's a-billion-times great grandpa who is somehow alive and you want me to help you with it! What am I _supposed_ to say?"

Sakura flushed a brilliant red color that clashed with her hair, and not for the first time, felt incredibly grateful that Naruto seemed to know every nook and cranny that existed in Konoha. If not, they would surely have been discovered by now in the hollow of the tree they were cramped together in, if not because of Naruto's disbelieving exclamations, then because of the flailing some of her highly-edited storytelling had caused.

"Ano..."

Truthfully, she hadn't _meant_ to tell Naruto the bare outline of everything going on with her at the moment. She'd spent nearly three days deciding who to tell the barest details necessary, and making up all these elaborate plans on how to reveal what was going on, and she'd been practicing everything she needed to know to make it seem like a big joke if she somehow screwed up... And then she'd run into Naruto.

Somehow, the roseate haired girl had gone from trying to make up an excuse about how she'd known about the children they'd found to just _blurting_ out a mass of verbs and nouns and 'please believe me'-type phrases that eventually came together in a fairly misleading but entirely truthful explanation. And she didn't exactly _regret_ telling him. Just... The _way_ she'd told him, and the things she'd let slip, and the sudden uncontrolled outpouring of words... Well, that could've gone better. A lot better, probably. Then again...

"So I'm really gonna be Hokage, right? I bet I kick ass."

...It was Naruto.

"You... Believe me?" She asked, blinking rapidly.

The boy tilted his head, and gave her that familiar squinty-eyed expression that said he was thinking deeply. "Ano... You're really smart, Sakura-chan. _Really_ smart. And you know all these funny medical jutsu. And you can tell the difference between Neko-san and Cat-san, even though they have the same mask in ANBU. And... You say some strange things sometimes. And you kinda seem to know everybody before they meet you. And..." He paused, suddenly looking down and growing shy. "Friends believe in each other no matter what, right?"

Sakura couldn't stop the large smile from spreading across her face, so wide that she could feel her goggles shifting on her head. How many times had she heard that exact phrase from him in the future? "Hai... We believe in each other. No matter what."

"Then, since you're my friend, I'm going to do my best! ...Only, what am I supposed to be doing? Except when you made me slip that note in the old man's pocket the other day, I don't think I've really been helpful." He tilted his head to the side, squinting once more. "How come you didn't tell the old man all this stuff, anyways?"

"Well... Hokage-sama is a ninja," Sakura explained with a slight grin. "And as any ninja knows... There's no such thing as a real secret in a hidden village. Somebody always knows _something_ about what's going on. One of the hardest parts of being a ninja is finding a way to use the information before the other guy can figure it out. And _this_ information... I don't think I can give it to just anyone. Hokage-sama will do what's best for Konoha, I know, but... What if he decided that the best thing for Konoha was to erase all the information from my head and let things run as close to events as possible, or something like that? I don't need someone to make decisions for me. I need someone to make decisions _with_ me. And I think... I think you're the best person to trust for that."

There was a long, silent look between them, before Naruto finally let a smile light his face. "I guess I'll just do whatever you say then, Sakura-chan. What's first?"

"First? Well, there's this boy named Yakushi Kabuto..."

* * *

Hating things took an awfully large amount of effort. To hate something, you had to pay it a whole lot of attention, and glare, and mutter, and actually spend time thinking up insults and reasoning and justifications to back up your original reasons. Not to mention, you had to be unhappy enough to feel hate, which was draining in itself. Hatred also seemed to make people act stupid and ignore logic for no good reason, which tended to inspire even more hate from new, more vindictive places in an unending cycle.

Shikamaru was tempted to say that he hated being such a smart child that he was actually pondering on hatred... But that also seemed like a waste of effort. If only he could convince the girl in the living room that hatred was way too tiring...

"No! Damn it, I said no! What the hell is this? How many fucking times do I have to ask to just be put in the fucking orphanage with every other fucktard my age? Shit! I don't want to be here! There's a bunch of fucking weird looking animals all over you fucking lawn taking dumps and chewing the same fucking grass they just shitted all over and I'll probably have to touch it or something if I stay here! Take me _back_, you ugly piece of shit! Fuck, I already hate it here! Why is this whole fucking village full of fucking _retards_?"

The brown haired boy wished he knew the answers to her questions. Particularly the reason she was being placed in his home instead of the orphanage. Somehow, he just knew that his life was going to become even more unnecessarily complicated because of this girl...

"Tayuya, huh? Che... Troublesome."

* * *

Itachi hadn't been on a mission outside of Konoha for what felt like months. He didn't notice how freeing it felt until he was half-way to the border of Hi no Kuni, subsisting more on pure adrenaline than any sort of nutrients. It wasn't even an ANBU designation mission, not this time. This time, he was playing courier. Surely, the contents of the scroll were extremely important for relations between Konoha and every other delegation that had contacted the Land of Iron as a neutral point, but the mere fact that he knew what the scroll was for said something about how rapidly the information was spreading between the masses.

In truth, he was apprehensive about what the scroll really meant; not the words printed on it, so much as the meaning behind it. The messages being relayed, the number of shinobi being reassigned to different teams and designations, the rapid changes being made to the Academy curriculum that resembled his own pre-genin course load much more closely than the current or even the one they'd been attending... He wasn't stupid. He knew what his village was preparing for. Again...

Stopping on a high branch in order to rest for a short while, the obsidian eyed boy glanced around himself, and then looked at the sky, where the moon was hanging full and heavy against the star-sprinkled darkness.

"Beautiful, isn't it, Itachi-kun?"

The kunai was flying out of his hand before the boy's mind caught up with his body. But that wasn't quick enough, because he'd been trapped before he'd ever reached into his kunai holster. He gritted his teeth, and then froze as a cloaked form appeared in front of him like a mirage.

"Now, now, that's no way to treat your dear ancestor, is it?"

A single Sharingan eye peered lazily at him from behind an orange, swirled mask. _The Sharingan!_

"Indeed, indeed, you have almost the same eyes as me." Madara chuckled at his little rhyme. "And now... Now, it's time for us to have a little family chat."

_Family chat? Who are you...?_

* * *

A/N: I think I'm almost physically incapable of publishing a chapter at a respectable hour. Ridiculous. Also... Madara, again. For some reason, I just cannot write him. What the hell. Meh.

And this one's kinda short... Sorry. (For real this time.)


	21. G r e e n L i g h t S a y s G o

I know what you've all been thinking. **Twenty chapters**... _And they're still not in the Academy? What the hell, author?_ Well, I must confess that I've been thinking the same thing, just, I have this issue where I get an idea and throw it in and it makes things take even longer than before. Like, they were supposed to be in the Academy two chapters after the reunion, and it just... A'sploded or something. Eh.

Also: **300+ Reviews**! Yay. So, I shall ask again: is anyone interested in an omake of some sort?

Anyways, no big issues from last chapter's reviews, so onward we go... Oh, wait, no. **Remember that unknown eighth clan heir**? Try and spy her out.

And I would just like to remind all readers of something that you should not have possibly been able to miss: **this is AU, dude. Really freaking AU.**

* * *

"With all due respect, Hokage-sama... No. I decline. I reject. I refuse. I _repudiate_. And once more for good measure, _no_."

The man sitting behind the desk sighed, and took a moment to puff on his pipe, letting the soothing taste of tobacco relax him a tiny bit. _I knew this wasn't going to be easy, but I had truly hoped it would be less difficult than my imaginings._ His tone was hard when he next spoke. "Take a seat, soldier." _I do not enjoy using force, but the future of the village is more important than the wishes of one young man._

Across the desk from the Hokage, Kakashi grimaced inwardly, but did a good job of keeping his face blank as he listened to the order and took a seat. "Hai, Hokage-sama." _This is bad. This is very bad. I knew I shouldn't have said the day couldn't get any worse..._

After a moment during which Hiruzen's dark brown gaze rested heavily on Kakashi's single visible eye, the Sandaime removed the pipe from his mouth and set it down on the table, unknowingly setting off alarms in his subordinate's head at the action. "Jounin Hatake, I fully understand your feelings on this matter, but I'm afraid that when I presented it, I was only giving you an illusion of having a choice. As the second in command of Konoha's military forces, you must know that you've been groomed for the position in case of a scenario exactly like this one."

"As the current Captain of ANBU, it was my belief that this position would first be handed to the current Jounin Commander, who has _also_ been groomed for this position. In fact, Nara-san has been the Jounin Commander since before I was even an ANBU grunt, and has far more experience in diplomatic relations, which are obviously a necessary skill for this," Kakashi was quick to shoot back.

"And as I have reassured the Uchiha and various others time and time again, people in positions of power within both their clans and their villages are often prone to conflicts of interest which remove them from the running entirely."

"Then how can I, as the Head of the Hatake Clan and the leader of ANBU possibly be a candidate?"

"Oh? The Hatake Clan? Am I to believe that you've finally accepted the suggestions of my Honorable Advisors and taken a wife so that you may produce an heir?"

_Fuck. Caught out again. _"...No." And he couldn't think of any other arguments that wouldn't be shot down within thirty seconds. "Hokage-sama, I really don't believe this is a good idea," Kakashi finally pleaded, shoulders slumping.

Sarutobi smiled, knowing that he'd won, not that there had been any other possible outcome. "As I have said before, Kakashi-kun, your arguments were taken into consideration even before this decision was fully made. But you'll be fine. I've known you since you were a toddler, and I can say with confidence that your ability to deal with adversity is unparalleled by most. When the time comes for you to step up fully, you will make a grand Godaime."

The white haired jounin remained silent, his eyes fixed on the top of the desk. _I don't want to be the Godaime, but I have no choice, apparently. Does it matter how well I do if I'm forced into it anyways?_

Somehow, the Sandaime remained oblivious to the dark aura that sprang up around his soldier. "It is a necessary precaution, Kakashi-kun. The times are growing harder as everyone can tell, and I have been in this position for far too long anyways. Rest assured, though, that you won't have to worry about taking this hat for quite some time. This is merely a precaution, if you will. For now, you must begin training the next Captain of ANBU and your future Second In Command. Choose wisely, hm? Dismissed." He paused, eying the pale jounin, and added a few extra words. "Do try and get some rest."

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the ANBU replied tiredly as he put his mask on once again, before exiting through the window. _Get some rest, huh? Fat chance of _that_ happening. I need a drink... Fuck, I need _several_ drinks..._

_Even if I don't become the Hokage for another ten years, I'll never compare to you, Minato-sensei._

* * *

The Academy's Welcoming Ceremony this year was the largest that it'd been in over a decade, and it quite literally the first time that a beginning class was larger than thirty-five students on the very first day. This year's entering class was made of the twenty five children that had been registered over a year ago, the thirty orphans and deprogrammed 'unknown's that had decided to become shinobi, and the clan heirs that had all been born around the same time. That was sixty-three children who were all beginning their shinobi training during what was feared to be the onset of a new war.

The shinobi in the crowd of parents and guests looked at them, and at one point or another, all of them had the same thought: _these are Konoha's next legends in the making._

At the very front of the milling crowd that he'd just given his most rousing speech to, the Sandaime found himself torn between pride and sadness. It warmed him to see so many children, knowing that they were the future of the village he'd spent his entire life serving and protecting. At the same time, even as they began being sorted into groups for the entrance examinations, he knew that barely half of them would make it out of their teenaged years. Fewer still if Konoha went to war.

This group would be pushed hard and trained more thoroughly and more harshly than those of the years past. This group would get the teachers that knew what did and didn't work when training children for war. This group would become the new front-line leaders, the assassins and spies who infiltrated enemy bases, the seductresses and scouts, heavy-hitters and tacticians... And, in the end, this group would probably have the most caskets in the upcoming years out of all the students attending at the moment.

"To protect the will of fire," he muttered softly to himself, turning and walking from the stage. "The things we humans do in search of peace..."

From across the large room, many eyes followed their leader as he made his exit. Standing in the midst of proud and worried parents and experienced shinobi who were already scouting out potential teams, Daisuke found that he didn't have it within himself to remain focused on his commander. His eyes kept drawing back to the crowd; they caught dark red first, and the sight of his wife left him longing to move out of the corner he was in, as always.

Gray orbs moved away, this time watching the small form of his daughter as she huddled together with the same set of boys she always seemed to be running around with. _I really had hoped you would be a civilian, Sakura... My sweet little daughter..._ At least he had the assurance that she would be skilled in her chosen profession. His child had so far proven to be surprisingly adept with picking up shinobi techniques. _I can only wish for her to become more level-headed, I suppose... I'll have to trust Jinya and Nadeshiko-hime to take care of that._

Finally, his attention was drawn back to the nearby area, as the familiar forms of Inoichi and Shikaku appeared, along with their friend, Chouza. It seemed that it was time for him to go.

_Good luck, musume._

* * *

Sakura was distracted. The auditorium was loud, her peers were all nervous and excited, and the air around everyone seemed to be literally vibrating with energy. She wanted to focus on Naruto, who was hopping in place like some kind of demented rabbit, and try to calm him down. She wanted to comfort Sai, who was clutching tightly at both her hand and their whiskered friend's, and scared because he wasn't sure he really wanted to be a shinobi but he had no desire to be left behind. She wanted to create a nice, distracting conversation; Sasuke was trying to look confident and unafraid, but his eyes kept wandering back to Itachi, who watched from the sidelines.

Her mother was in the crowd somewhere, but when Sakura tried to look at her, she always ended up catching the eye of Yakumo, the sickly looking Kurama clan heir. She wanted to go over and comfort the nervous looking girl, and maybe run a discrete medical diagnosis, because nobody should be paler than Sai was. Her eyes couldn't find Hinata, but she knew the other girl was hiding with Shino in the corner behind Chouji and Shikamaru. She tried not to look in that direction anyways, because there was a girl she'd never seen before standing nearby with an absolutely foul expression; she was the only other person Sakura had 'met' with pink hair, although it was far too dark to be called magenta.

Of course, she found herself looking at the stranger a lot more often than she wanted to, because she was actively keeping her eyes away from the only blonde there besides Naruto. Ino was small and unfamiliar looking against the image that she held in her mind, and looking at the girl made her chest hurt in a way that she couldn't really describe. It was funny to hear the other girl nagging at Shikamaru in a high-pitched, childish voice, but echoes of the smooth alto that Sakura knew played behind every word and made it impossible to focus on any sort of meaning.

She'd been avoiding any possible meetings with the other girl before, but if this kept up, she would probably make Ino an enemy by accident. Sakura still couldn't decide if that wouldn't be less painful than making friends with her all over again. _Coward..._

A nudge in the side had her jumping; her green eyes locked onto Naruto's, and the smile she gave was weak. "Hai?"

"We're all gonna be the last ones to go," Naruto replied, rocking back and forth on his toes and ignoring the way Sai stumbled with each movement. "And you and me and Sai and that other girl are the only ones who don't come from big fancy clans in Konoha. And all their parents are looking at us because of it. And the creepy dude with the white eyes is staring at me the way Bear stares at me, and your mom looks like she's going to cry, and you look like you're gonna throw up, and this is taking _forever_ and when are we going to go get _tested_ finally? And why do we even have to take a test on the first day? We haven't learned anything yet!" He ended in a frustrated not-yell.

"I guess we just got lucky and ended up in a special class, and they're surprised about it," Sakura spoke back quietly, secretly glad for the interruption from her thoughts. Naruto's words let her focus on other things, like the fact that he was supposed to start in a different class from her, and that she had been in another class as well before her scores got her shifted to the class with the clan heirs. Her suspicion was that someone, probably Sasuke's mother, had vouched for them. But she didn't really want to contemplate that. "And they're testing our chakra and our stamina. It's just for class placement, and for our future teachers to know."

"How are you so sure about that?" It was the other pink-haired girl that spoke up. "Shouldn't it be one of these other retards with all the inside info?" Her brown eyes were narrowed on Sakura as she came to a stop close to them, moving away from Shikamaru and Chouji for the first time since the orientation had begun. "I don't suppose you can tell me why all the fuckers in charge put me, you, pale-boy and sunshine in with all these big-shot kids either?"

Wide-eyed with surprise, Sakura couldn't help but back away slightly. _How did she even hear me talking from all the way over there?_ To her dismay, she noticed that everyone else was looking at her little group of friends as well. "Um..."

The timely appearance of a chuunin saved her from having to speak. She recognized Iruka's broad shoulders and his peculiar way of walking, as if he was moving through a field of land mines, before he even stopped near them. It was strange to see him so _young_ looking. Stranger still was the fact that Iruka hadn't started teaching at the Academy until she was ten the first time around.

"Konnichiwa. Will everybody please line up in size order so that we can begin? The faster all of you get organized, the faster we can move onto the tests. By the way, I'm Umino Iruka. I'll be your primary sensei when the sessions really start, and I look forward to working with you."

This time, it was Naruto being nudged out of inattention. Even as the blonde moved into line, taking a cursory interest in Sakura's strange expression when she was put in front of Yamanaka Ino, his eyes were stuck on their new teacher.

_Wolf?_

* * *

There was something about being roundhouse kicked in the head that just seemed to put the entire world into perspective, Jinya mused as he lay on the ground, staring up at the sky. _It's all so blue,_ he thought dazedly. _And... White. Blue and white. Like that tablecloth that okaasan hates to use. Okaasan... I wonder if Hokage-sama put a protection detail around her? I hope he did. I don't think I'm strong enough to murder the Hokage if he didn't. And hime wouldn't like that. Hm... Maybe I just won't try...? Doesn't seem like a good idea, really..._

Eventually, his new perspective on the world faded back into normality. "...ya! Jinya! Shit, Suzu, how hard did you kick him? Have you been training with that crazy dude in the green suit again?" With every other word, he could feel Tatsuki shaking him by his shoulders.

"Tatsuki. Ow." Jinya didn't really have much to say besides that. Luckily, that was all he needed to speak to make his teammate release him. Sitting up, he blinked rapidly in Suzumushi's direction. The dark-haired Aburame wasn't usually so harsh in dealing with him, at least during practice spars. _Huh. I probably did something wrong._ At least, that was what his current understanding of females seemed to imply. "Suzu?"

Aburame Suzumushi continued looking at him for a moment, and then nudged her dark sunglasses higher on her nose before settling noiselessly onto the grass beside him. "You are distracted. I felt it wise to end the spar before Tatsuki decided to employ more _explosive_ measures in our tactics training." Her quiet, whispery voice starkly contrasted the dark undertones of irritation he got from the words.

"Yeah!" Tatsuki piped up, plopping down beside them to complete the circle. "What's up with you lately? You're always hitting too hard or reacting too slow when we spar. In case you haven't noticed based on all these C-Ranks, this is kinda the worst time ever to be spacing out."

_Oh, it's nothing. Just, my baby sister is turning into an unstable variable before my very eyes, my civilian mother is being threatened into becoming a go-between for random people out of the blue, and Itachi's either avoiding me or acting weird for some reason I can't figure out. Oh, and on top of that, I think I saw _my dead father _at the Academy opening ceremony this morning. Yup, nothing big. _As he obviously couldn't reply with his actual thoughts for fear of being called insane, Jinya went with his default response to things he couldn't answer: smile and make something up.

With an embarrassed grin stretching his face, the white haired boy made a show of rubbing at the back of his head and replied, "I think that's exactly why I've been so distracted lately. That, and my imouto is starting the Academy right now. I almost skipped training to go; I probably would've if we didn't have that C-Rank scheduled in two days. But please, let's start over. I'll get my head into it again, definitely."

Snorting, Tatsuki eyed him for a moment, before shrugging and standing up. "Whatever you say, Jin." A smile quickly overtook her features again, and a slightly manic glint entered her eyes. "I'll go reset all the traps!" And then, she bounded off before either of them could get a word in.

"I keep hoping that she'll run out of exploding tags... Where does she keep pulling them from, anyways? I still see only two holsters," Jinya mumbled, standing slowly and trying not to wince at the pounding in his head. _This is gonna hurt._ Still, he turned and offered a hand to Suzumushi. "We should catch up before she gets too over excited."

Suzumushi accepted his help up, but when she was standing, she tightened her grip before he could pull his hand back. "Jinya."

Blinking, Jinya faced his teammate fully, and almost recoiled when he found her large brown eyes glaring directly into his over the tops of her dark shades. _Oh shit, she's being serious with me._ "Suzu...?"

"You are _twelve_," Suzu spoke, her hushed voice infused with something hard and compelling. "I understand that you are dealing with many things. I felt much the same after the death of my mother. However, you cannot afford to let this take over you completely. The world is becoming more dangerous with each passing hour. When you 'get your head into it' today... Make sure it _stays_ there." She paused. "Everything _will _resolve itself in time. That is simply the way the world works. Your job is to keep up."

The green eyed boy stared back at her for a long moment, before nodding sharply. "Hai... I will. I _promise_." This time, he meant it more sincerely; Suzumushi showed her concern in odd ways, but it was almost always fully warranted. "Arigatou, Suzu," he added.

With a nod, Suzumushi released his hand, and pushed her sunglasses back into place once again. Without any further words, she turned and walked further into the clearing, where a veritable obstacle course of traps was waiting for them.

He followed behind her, a small smile on his face even as he forced his thoughts to settle down for the wasn't as if he could do anything at the moment, after all. Better to take care of himself until there was a time when he _could_.

If he was lucky, that time would be soon. But his luck had always been rather iffy.

* * *

A/N: Huh. I feel weird about this chapter. Like I'm not really satisfied with it. Eh... Whatever. Also, what are your thoughts on **Yakumo**? And **Suzumushi/Tatsuki**? Or really, **anyone**? Please, do tell me.


	22. O n T h e I n s i d e

Yeah... **Yakumo**, the **eighth clan heir**, isn't an original character. Google is your friend, yeah?

Aaaand... It's still AU. Enjoy.

Be happy. There's a **time skip** after the first scene. Unfortunately, that means lots and lots of non-dialogue this chapter...

* * *

"So I notice you've been avoiding me for the last two months."

If it weren't for the fact that he was dirt tired and long past the point of 'sleepy,' Itachi might have jumped when the voice appeared close to his ear. As it happened, however, he did stumble minutely over his own feet while reaching for his kunai. His hand paused before it even reached the weapons pouch; he recognized the voice of the person next to him, almost more than he recognized that uncanny ability to appear out of nowhere beside him that only two people to date could manage.

He would've preferred that it be Shisui who had stopped him in the middle of the night, rather than Jinya. _Shisui, at least, is easier to slip away from..._ The Uchiha heir sighed mentally. "...Shall I even ask why I've run into you at two in the morning?" Almost subconsciously, his leg muscles tensed, preparing to rocket him away at the first chance available. _I can't afford this kind of stress right now._ Not that anyone else seemed to realize that.

Almost as if he sensed that Itachi as going to flee, Jinya threw his arm over the other boy's shoulder in an overly friendly matter, silently making it clear that he had no intention of letting the Uchiha heir escape. "You passed my team as we were returning from our mission. But, back to my initial statement. I don't suppose you have anything to say to that, do you?" The white haired boy asked in a falsely jovial tone. His smile was entirely too wide and cheerful to be real, especially at that time of night.

"Nothing I wish to reply with, no." With his reply, Itachi closed his eyes to the world and allowed his shoulders to slump, ignoring the Fugaku-voice in the back of his head ranting at him about posture. Lately, he'd been getting very good at ignoring the voices in the back of his head. "I don't suppose I could convince you to postpone this?"

"And let you disappear on another 'last minute' mission again? Of course not." Jinya jogged Itachi's shoulder slightly, as if to say, 'do you really think I'm that stupid?' "As a matter of fact, I have a great idea: let's go back to my house. Sakura-chan should be having her first ever slumber party right now, so we don't even have to worry about being overheard while you spill your worried little heart out to me."

The black haired boy cast a weak glare at Jinya from the corner of his eye. "I'd rather not spill anything, if you please. I think it would be far more advisable, not to mention less of a hassle, if I were to return to my clan's compound, as I should."

"I wasn't _asking_," Jin replied with a tight little smile. Clutching Itachi's shoulder tighter, he turned them both in the opposite direction, and very admirably ignored Itachi's sigh, much as he ignored the way his friend had said 'my clan's compound' rather than 'home.' "You can borrow a pair of my clothes, okaasan will just add yours to the laundry tomorrow morning. And we'll have hot chocolate even though it's been blisteringly hot lately. Then, I'm going to tell you about how your brother set my sister's pants on fire by accident while you were gone, and you'll tell me about your mission, and then..."

Against his will, Itachi found himself relaxing as he was led away from the Uchiha district. He was fully aware that Jinya was only rambling on for that very same purpose, and any talks to be had in the next hour would be far less amusing than any story of their younger siblings getting into trouble, but he was too tired to care at the moment. And while his mind rebelled against it, he couldn't help but be comforted that Jinya had bothered to search him out at all. It was a nice reminder that there still existed people in the world who _didn't _see him as a tool of some sort.

_But that doesn't mean that I'm not..._ He knocked the thought away. _It can't hurt to relax for a few moments. Nothing will be done if I'm too high strung to complete it._ Or at least, that would be his excuse. Shinobi were made to work under pressure, after all.

_I can deal with this later,_ he decided. _Preferably much later._

* * *

It was a cool, windy spring-like day. The lack of sweltering heat as summer began was a rare treat for everyone in Konoha, with the Academy students placing somewhere at the top of the 'appreciative' list. In particular, the second, soon to be third year students found every slight breeze to be a delight. Unlike the first years, who had geography, anatomy and body conditioning to contend with on the shaded _inside_, the second year students focused almost entirely on outdoors combat situations, survival training, and tactics.

And unlike the third, fourth, and fifth year students within the Academy, the second year students had joined at the beginning of hard times for the shinobi nations; they'd never been given a summer break in the first place, and so they could appreciate the day instead of complaining about being in school during the summer as their older peers did.

Lunchtime for the second year class saw an uncharacteristically active yard. Normally, all but the most energetic of students would use the time to eat and rest as much as possible after a grueling three hours of physical education and mock combat with each other, so long as they weren't on a training mission in the forest. Today was such a beautiful day, however, that everyone seemed to gain an easy second wind and go on to do more than lay around talking and chowing down. Games were played, contests were had, and everyone was relaxed.

Everyone except, perhaps, one Yamanaka Ino.

At nine years of age, Ino was a surprisingly observant child, and her intuition went far deeper than the mental abilities toted by her clan. While some of it certainly had to do with her blood, most of it came from her hobby of waiting and watching. Even as the people around her drifted from group to group and activity, Ino perched herself on a middle branch of the largest tree in the courtyard and observed her classmates and comrades while playing idly with a flower.

Directly beneath her, Aburame Shino sat calmly next to a smaller brown haired girl, Uchiha Shizuka, and watched two shiny blue beetles crawling back and forth over his legs. With each slight shift he made, hints of bandages peeked out from beneath his sleeves. Ino knew that they hid strange looking scars on each of his wrists, and that the only person he'd ever willingly showed them to was Shizuka. She'd spent quite a bit of time watching Shino after meeting him; their fathers always seemed to be in each other's company, and he always seemed to project an air of mystery. He shared an odd bond with Shizuka for no explanation, and interacted willingly with very few people. She'd been curious about him.

Ino was less curious about Shizuka, who she had managed to find all possible information on quite some time ago. From what she understood, "Uchiha" Shizuka was one of the children recovered from the Deep Ground Incident a few years ago. Her oddities came in that her existence hadn't been recorded before then, and the fact that her kekkei genkai had been activated when she was only seven years old. More curious still was the so-called 'mutation' of her Sharingan, which had hollow circles instead of tomoe and seemed to flare to life of its' own volition. Ino suspected that she had been an _experiment_, but she had nobody to share her suspicions with. They stayed in her head. In any case, Shizuka wasn't even in their class. She just always seemed to find her way to where Shino was.

Her head turned, and she focused on the trio of children sitting farther away from the tree; Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji, and Inuzuka Kiba. These three were sharing two bentos between them, and Kiba was gesticulating wildly as he explained something, the dog on his head barking in time with the words. Ino knew he was prone to exaggeration and speculation, so she wasn't interested in what he was saying.

Similarly, she paid no attention to what Chouji said. She had known Chouji since they were both in diapers, and while he was a very kind boy, he almost never did anything interesting. He was a sometimes friend of hers; it was only sometimes because usually, when they got together, Ino was advocating adventure and he was fervently denying it. She could probably have pushed him into it if it weren't for his 'champion' of sorts, Nara Shikamaru.

Shikamaru was another childhood friend of hers, although they didn't get along very well unless nobody was talking. He was lazy and slow, but much to Ino's frustration, incredibly smart. His exam scores were off the charts when he could be made to do his work, and his battle strategies surprised even Iruka-sensei in classes. Although he had an irritating tendency to overlook simple flaws by accident, he was very skilled with getting out of situations; proof of that was that he had never allowed Chouji to be coerced into anything when Ino was around.

Her attention fell on Touken Saichi, or Sai as he was known, and Kurama Yakumo next. Together, the pair made a sickly pale smudge against a shaded wall of the Academy building. Sai was an odd one; he spoke strangely, although he'd improved greatly from when they first met, and he progressed slowly in picking up new things. However, once he did understand something, he could execute it flawlessly every single time, with almost robotic efficiency. His hobby was drawing, and recently, he had picked up the strangest skill of manipulating the water in his inks and making his drawings run around across the page. Ino liked him, but they didn't talk much, despite his amazing energy when it came to making friends with other people.

It was probably due to Sai that Yakumo was still within their class. When she joined them, the Kurama heir was extremely sickly and shy. She seemed literally _unable_ to interact with other people on a normal level, and this didn't leave her very popular within a class. The sentiments had only escalated when it became clear that her skills lay primarily in genjutsu, but not much else. There had been talk, some time ago, about her becoming unstable due to the environment and accidentally lashing out. She had _almost_ consented to being removed from the Academy... Almost.

There wasn't a person in the class who didn't recall the day Sai first saw Yakumo draw something. It had started off with a simple introduction between them and somehow ended with the boy leading her around by the hand, prompting her to reintroduce herself to each and every person in the class. The exercise, while simple, turned out to be the perfect solution to Yakumo's situation. It was hard to dislike the girl once she finally began to talk, and it wasn't long before the class started to include her on things. It had a domino effect that, along with several other influences, led to her becoming a better shinobi and person in general. It wasn't long before the two became all but attached at the hip.

Not far from them, trying to seem as if she _wasn't_ hanging around with them, was the girl known only as Tayuya. The girl was older than most of the class by about two years or so, but it often seemed like far more based on her rough speech and the bleak outlook she had on every situation. Ino wasn't actually sure how her friendship with the other two had started; it could be due to her genjutsu skills, the seating arrangements, or the strange obsession she had with figuring out Sai's cousin. It was hard to place Tayuya in any sort of group because she didn't seem to mesh well with anyone at all. It was extremely surprising that the girl got along with Sai and Yakumo at all, just due to their personalities.

Her attention was drawn to the center of the courtyard. Speaking of personalities, the foremost 'group' in their class was situated there; Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, and Haruno Sakura. The Uchiha heir was guaranteed popularity by his name, and the ninjutsu and taijutsu skills he displayed made him a bit more worthy of the inborn arrogance he seemed to carry sometimes. Sasuke was an interesting boy, if somewhat spoiled and emotionally dense. A lot of girls liked him, and Ino couldn't blame them. If nothing else, he was very cute.

Naruto, the whiskered blonde, was a smart kid who always seemed to get into the strangest situations. Ino had never managed to figure out why people seemed to dislike him; he was nice when you could get past the way he sometimes stared at people, and once he relaxed, he had a lot of funny stories to tell. Of course, she supposed that his amazing propensity for getting into "situations" could put negative points on his name. Nobody had ever explained what happened during that week when he simply disappeared, and came back with almost all his hair chopped off and no eyebrows. She suspected it had something to do with the "medic corps incident" from the year before.

Finally, her gaze landed on Sakura. Ino had been avoiding looking at the pink haired girl on purpose as she watched the courtyard. For some reason, ever since the day they met, Sakura had seemed to dislike her. The girl had never looked her in the eyes, and took great pains to never sit near her or talk to her or even participate in the same groups that Ino did.

Although she would never admit it, Ino secretly blamed Sakura for a lot of things. In her mind, Sakura was the reason that she didn't have any close friends; except for Ino, Sakura was friends with everyone. She was smart, and kind, and confident, and she always knew what to say to which person. She was Naruto's best friend, Sasuke seemed to admire her and treat her like a sister, Sai was her cousin so Yakumo liked her, Tayuya was almost fixated on her, Shikamaru paid attention when she spoke, Chouji would share food with her, and even Kiba actually listened when she gave a direction.

Even if it was subconsciously, all of her classmates noticed the way that Sakura treated her and seemed to act the same way in return. They weren't _mean_ to her, sure, but Ino had never been invited to sleepovers or asked directly to play after school or tugged over for a group. She hated to admit it, but she was extremely jealous of Sakura. She just seemed to have everything that Ino _didn't_, and more than that, she seemed to deserve it.

Perhaps, what bothered Ino more was that she was actually more jealous of her classmates for having Sakura than she was of Sakura for having her classmates.

Today, though, Sakura was looking distracted. She'd seemed very distracted for a while, actually. It made it hard to hate the girl the way Ino felt like she should.

Feeling a familiar frown beginning to tug across her face, Ino forced herself to relax, and instead scoured the courtyard one more time. She stopped herself, however, as she remembered that Hinata had left early.

Only an hour ago, their class had been sparring together, and after several rounds, Hinata was paired against Naruto. Although the small girl was extremely shy and always seemed to fade into the background, when it came to taijutsu, the right motivation could turn her into a demon. Ino didn't know _what_ had spurned Hinata on today, but even Naruto, who always seemed to get back up, was defeated.

Of course, it was only moments after her victory that Hinata simply fainted and had to be escorted home. Truthfully, the Hyuuga girl had seemed peaky for the entire day. Perhaps the fight had simply drained everything she had left.

Ino was finally drawn from her thought by a sharp, high-pitched whistle streaking through the air. Within moments, the entire class had picked up from their spots and lined up at the door to the Academy, where Iruka was waiting for them. They would go inside, pick up their weighted backpacks, and prepare for a long two hours of endurance training before school let out for the day.

She was a bit grateful for it. When running drills over and over again, it was hard to gather the oxygen necessary for deep thinking. Some mindless exercise would be good for her.

* * *

"Hm... You're not doing horribly, at least. Everyone show me the second form. Quickly! Any slackers can just get out!"

The group of children sped up at her words, going through the specialized taijutsu style developed for medics. After a long year and a half under her tutelage, all the children in the medic group knew that their sensei, Senju Tsunade, was not a patient nor forgiving teacher. While many had chafed at first to be plucked from some of their normal classes to join this group because of their chakra control, by now, it was a fight just to stay within the 'Junior Medic Corps.' None of them would ever call a medic wimpy again, not after the things they'd learned.

For her part, Tsunade watched the children go through the motions with a hidden pride in her eyes. Admittedly, when she was recalled from her journeys two years ago, she had resented Konoha and the Sandaime in equal measures. The council had tracked down and purchased every debt that she had accrued in the past several years, forcing her back to the place, and her old sensei had completely supported the move, especially the forceful tactics they used to get her in to the ANBU deprogrammers for her hemophobia. The experience still scarred her today, and everybody knew it.

However, that was probably the main reason they had decided to make an attempt at appeasing her. At first, she had been more resentful than excited when she was offered the chance to train up medical students from the Academy. But that was before she'd been informed that the newest class had twice the number of students as normal, and that not only was she allowed to choose from them, she was also allowed to pick out any persons of interest from the higher years. It was a bit too far to go just in an attempt to make her feel better about the village and its' citizens, so she had accepted a bit more eagerly. It turned out to be one of the most fulfilling offers of her life.

A year and a half later, she had managed to shape her ragtag group of children into the largest shinobi medical force that any shinobi village had ever gathered. The class was made mostly from second and third year students, with a few high-aptitude children from the older classes thrown into the bunch. Many of them made for average medics, but an average medic already had prodigious chakra control and extremely good memorization and analysis skills. It was to her benefit, then, that there were more than a few _above_ average students within the class as well.

Of them, Tsunade had her eye on three in particular; the second year Hinata Hyuuga had amazing chakra control, even for her clan, and her bloodline gave her a unique ability to diagnose wounds in mere moments without wasting chakra on diagnosis techniques. Today, the girl was absent after fainting earlier.

In her usual place was Yakushi Kabuto, one of the oldest students in the Academy. She had spotted him almost immediately, partly because his father was the current head doctor at Konoha's hospital, but mostly because she'd seen him healing classmates as she was surveying children. He was practically a medical prodigy, and she had actually held him back from graduating in order to keep him within the medical corps. It turned out to be a good thing, too, because half of his small graduating class later turned out to be either killed or compromised during a joint mission in Suna territory. The deprogrammers were still taking care of some of the compromised ones.

Finally, her eyes landed on Haruno Sakura. The girl was quite simply an amazing medic, although Tsunade would never say it to her, for fear of favoritism. Her chakra control was ridiculous, and for once, she had the chakra capacity to go with it. The child not only mastered medical techniques at a nearly terrifying pace, but also seemed to play around with them in order to increase effects or decrease drawbacks. Truthfully, she didn't need to be within the class, because she'd gone through all the subject matter already. But Tsunade was reluctant to let her go. In another time and place, she would've taken the girl on as an apprentice. She certainly got along well enough with Shizune.

Today, for some reason, Sakura was distracted. In fact, for the last few weeks, the little pink haired girl had been drifting off worryingly during both medical practice and her normal shinobi classes. All the teachers had noticed her making simple mistakes that could turn out very badly in the field, and the only reason she hadn't been approached about it was that there were no important examinations coming up and informing her might add more stress to her little shoulders.

Besides, there was someone already invested in keeping her on track.

"Psst! Sakura-chan, that's _third!_ We're supposed to keep doing second form!" Uzumaki Naruto was the last person Tsunade would ever have chosen for the medics. His chakra control was spotty, his anatomy scores weren't the best, and his fighting style didn't mesh at all the with taijutsu techniques taught to medics. He was obviously a front line fighter, not a healer, and she couldn't understand why he forced himself to painstakingly learn every single ijutsu technique just to stay in the class. A few hours away from his best friend, Sakura, couldn't possibly hurt him. And she couldn't see the appeal in staying only to pester and stalk Kabuto the way he constantly did.

But he was a determined child, hardheaded really, and that was perhaps the very reason that she hadn't kicked him out of the classes yet. His single minded focus reminded her very sharply of Nawaki, and his refusal to ever give up. It was hard to stay away from the boy, and she simply didn't have the heart to kick him out. Besides, he wasn't totally useless at general healing and larger operations, and shinobi teams would always need more medics.

This was especially true in recent times, Tsunade mused as she directed the children to move into the next set of forms. Konoha and most of the other shinobi nations were currently engaged in the fiercest "not-war" in history. It was a fight for intelligence and small victories, rather than the land conquering battles of the last war she'd participated in. Hidden bases were destroyed 'to no-ones fault." Diplomatic conclaves were held semi-regularly between the very nations running mass infiltration attempts on each other. A game of trade agreements and covert operations and battles that had officially "never happened" was being fought. Never before had so many candidate village leaders been lined up when the current kages didn't intend to 'retire' (not that a kage ever ended his reign by _retiring_).

Strangely, the reason for the fighting and the reason it wasn't a full-out war were exactly the same: Deep Ground Organization. Only the high-ranked shinobi of Konoha knew that the base of this operation was the former Root, led by Danzo... And nobody intended to tell. The organization was added to by some upstart village in Rice Country, Oto, as well as the closed off Amegakure. Foremost was a shadowy organization of high ranked nuke-nin that it was nearly impossible to find any information on, simply because any attempts to gather information usually ended up with the informant dead.

Nobody wanted to risk making war on each other when there was always the threat of Deep Ground coming up to attack them from the back.

Tsunade knew that the main reason she had been recalled was so that she, along with many of Konoha's other well-known shinobi, could present the face of real strength to the rest of the world. Just by having one of the Sannin living within in their walls and training their children, people were hesitant to make their 'attacks' on Fire Country's territories. It had the added benefit of leaving more shinobi open to leave the village on missions, secure in the safety of their 'home base.' In fact, just by having Tsunade in the village, the survival rate for wounded shinobi who made it back to Konoha nearly doubled.

If Tsunade hadn't been recalled, along with several other shinobi, she was sure that Konoha wouldn't have the forces necessary after two years of "not-war" to complete some of their operations, such as assisting the side they supported in Mist's bloody civil war, which had broken out at exactly the wrong time. Most other nations openly scorned Konoha's involvement in it, especially since it seemed like it would never bear fruit. They couldn't imagine going against a faction led by a wild jinchuuriki.

She thought they would be surprised. That Mei woman... She was a force to be reckoned with.

"Eighth form!" Tsunade barked out suddenly, feeling a sudden anger pop up.

She still couldn't believe the damn girl had the audacity to call her _old_!

* * *

Technically, Sakura was somewhere around twenty five years old. Technically, she was also only nine and a half.

Either way, she had never felt so completely stressed out in her entire life. This year was an important, terrifying year. This was the year during which Konoha was supposed to lose the entire Uchiha clan in one fell swoop; barring that, this was the year that the village was most likely to face an attempted coup from the aforementioned clan. Both options were fairly terrifying. But she couldn't imagine them being decimated without Danzo pushing at the councilors to act in his favor, and she couldn't see anyone attempting a coup without Mikoto becoming exceedingly suspiscious. Sasuke's mother had proven a long time ago that her loyalties went to the safety and happiness of her children above everything else, and she didn't seem like the type to think that taking over a shinobi village in the middle of a "not-war" was the best way to provide for them. But still, Sakura was trying to find out all she could on that front. It was scary to think of what a mistake would do.

Scarier still, this was also the year when, originally, she had decided to become a shinobi. It was scary because she had only decided to become a serious shinobi after her brother's death. Six months into the year, she knew from her own anxious counting that Jinya had been on thirty-seven out-of-village missions. She counted one of those as the chuunin exams that he had attended and passed with his team in Takigakure earlier that year. About a third of those missions had been called very suddenly, usually in the late evening or early morning, and each one had given Sakura a mini heart attack.

Originally, the mission that had taken Jinya from her didn't happen until much later in the year, long after Sasuke lost his own family. But the Konoha she lived in now and the one she remembered from her own childhood were so far removed from each other that a lot of her knowledge was nearly useless, depending on chance and fate rather than any kind of hardcore facts. She had never lived through a "not-war" as a child, or having Kakashi as the candidate Godaime, or Tsunade as a teacher, or even any kind of medical training. She hadn't known Kabuto existed then, and she had a father that was just a civilian, and she knew an Ino that was the most popular girl in the class and the worst gossip-monger ever, not the quiet girl who existed in corners and faded into walls and who she could never work up the courage to speak to.

After this, Sakura didn't think she would _ever_ stop being terrified that Jinya wouldn't come back. Every mission he took was an unknown, every situation was one that had never existed before, and every enemy was one that some other poor fool should've been facing. She couldn't help but wonder how her parents, or anyone, could ever deal with this knowledge. How did her mother managed to function properly when every other day was a day that she might receive a black envelope saying that one of her children was _gone_?

The pink haired girl wondered how long it would take before _she_ could function properly. She knew her teachers were concerned and more than a little aggravated with her performance lately, but she couldn't seem to focus when she knew that Jinya was somewhere out there and he might be facing some disaster she would never know about. The notes she'd been sending to the Hokage in different codes had tapered off along with her ability to focus. The amount of attention she paid to her friends or her future enemies or even Tayuya, who watched her every movement like a hawk, was almost nonexistent.

She wondered if she would get anything done if it wasn't for Sasuke pestering her, Naruto nudging her, and her mother making sure she had three meals a day. It was a constant fight to push away the incredibly stupid and unrealistic plan of running away and just following Jinya around invisibly, so that she could be there whenever he got into trouble. Sakura tried and tried to remember that she hadn't come back for her brother, but it was a hard task. Harder still was the knowledge that she really and truly _couldn't_ do anything for him.

She hadn't felt like such a failure since the first time she realized that by coming back in time, she'd practically started a war.

_But I have to do this,_ the small girl told herself. _After all this time... What other choices do I have?_

"Not many," the roseate mumbled to herself under her breath, shifting into a new position after a nudge from Naruto. She resisted the instinctive urge to activate chakra scalpels; that was, after all, what this style of fighting was based around. It was strange to be learning this taijutsu again when she'd already learned and mostly discarded it years ago, for Tsunade's more powerful personal style. _I can do this, I can do this, I can do this..._

Perhaps, if she said it enough times, she would actually be able to believe what she was saying.

* * *

"Ch-chichiue, I-I am a-awake."

The near silent voice drew Hiashi away from his afternoon tea. As always, he found himself fighting a frown when he focused his eyes on the form of his eldest daughter. Her posture was weak and screamed 'subservience!' to anyone looking, and her eyes were on the ground. Nothing could hide the tremor in her voice when she spoke to him. Sometimes, he couldn't help but wonder if she was really his daughter at all. How could he have produced a child so _weak_?

Setting down his teacup, he beckoned her forward, but didn't invite her to sit. "Tell me the reason for your disgrace earlier this day," Hiashi demanded flatly.

Hinata flinched visibly, but didn't raise her eyes. "I... I..." If possible, she curled in upon herself further. "I d-did as y-you a-asked me to, ch-chichiue..." Her voice got quieter and quieter as she spoke.

Hiashi felt his brows raise up high; it seemed that, for once, his eldest had managed to do something worthwhile. "Is that so? I had thought it was strange that you actually managed to defeat _that boy_. Is it fully activated?"

In a trembling voice, Hinata answered, "H-hai..."

"Well. It certainly took you long enough to put it into use. I suppose that I can put this disgrace of yours away from mind, for today. Go."

Hinata didn't even manage a reply as she quickly backed out of the small office, and then bolted down the hall to her own bedroom. The moment the shoji door slid shut, the ten year slid down to the floor and broke down into silent sobs that racked her entire body. _I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,_ the mantra repeated in her head as she thought of what her father had just almost-congratulated her for.

It had taken a long time for her to decide that she wanted her father's approval more than she desired a friendship with Naruto, but she _had_ chosen. And today, even though the blonde didn't know it, she'd just betrayed him in the worst kind of way. Most likely, everyone was so focused on how fiercely she had fought that nobody would notice the seal tag that had dissolved onto the back of Naruto's neck during her finishing move. It was exactly how she wanted it. She would plant the tag her father had given her, he would realize that she wasn't a failure and congratulate her, and then maybe she could be _happy_ for once and improve without being scared of harsh reprimands.

She was stupid to believe it would go that way. _Stupid, stupid, stupid Hinata!_ She admonished herself mentally, curling up into a tighter ball. _And now it's all ruined because you're still a failure but now you're a betrayer too! How can I ever face you again, Naruto-kun?_

She wished she could go back and change her mind, but that would never happen.

_Stupid..._

* * *

A/N: So... **the long awaited time skip**. Thoughts? Let me know.


	23. T a g Y o u ' r e I t

Here you are, **a second update within the same week**. Props to **Wavelet365 **for inspiring me to actually finish and post this chapter.

And in case they didn't see it before: **rnc4** and **princess-kally** should PM me. Forums, yes?

* * *

She wasn't quite sure how she'd ended up as a Rebel Leader. One day, she was semi-organizing a tiny mission to rescue some children. Less than a week later, she was dodging assassination attempts from her own Kage and being approached by one covert person after another looking to help her 'undermine the tyrant.' Mei couldn't understand why they'd chosen _her_, of all people, to lead them. Why did they ask for _her_ opinion and _her_ orders and _her_ preferences when trying to get things done?

Her grandmother had tried to explain it, but Ruriko had a bad habit of making strange metaphors that nobody truly understood, so Mei couldn't count on any reasoning from that corner. Zabuza, on the other hand, didn't even attempt to explain. His belief was that she should just take the power she was getting and use it while she could. If nothing else, Mei had a lot more contacts both inside and outside of Water Country than any other possible leader did. The safe houses provided by her allies and family members were a big part of their rebellion's slow success, especially when it came to preserving the kekkei genkai users that were being hunted into near extinction.

And Mei didn't know what she would do without the help of her aunts and grandmother, as well as the parts of the Karibi clan spread over the other countries, who were happy to arrange covert transportation of medical supplies and assistance. It was only by a quirk of fate that when she'd gone to ask Konoha for assistance, she was met with Senju Tsunade, who supported her because of their one-time acquaintance in a gambling town. It was likely that Konoha, much like the other villages, would've turned them down if it wasn't for her vote of confidence.

Not for the first time, Mei found herself wondering how her family in Konoha was doing. Although she'd been there more than once, she'd never had the opportunity to visit with her aunt, uncle, and younger cousins. For one thing, her visits only lasted for hours at a time before she was being shunted back to the violent fight in Mizu. On another side, it would be extremely suspiscious for a foreign shinobi leader to go visit the home of a pair of civilians and their pre-genin aged children. It was important that any and all connections between Karibi clan members remain hidden when they resided and fought for opposing countries. Having the governments know about their connection was jsut a giant opportunity for exploitation waiting to be taken advantage of.

"Mei-sama?"

Looking up from the reports that she hadn't been paying any attention to, Mei focused on the doorway of the hut that was the rebel faction's current 'base of operations.' She smiled upon seeing that it was Chojuro standing there. The bespectacled boy had gotten older, broader and taller, but he still had yet to lose his shy and polite demeanor. "Yes? Come in."

The boy stepped in, and revealed that the smaller Haku was following behind him, in the Hunter-nin attire that he'd taken to so strongly years ago. It was the brunette child that spoke up: "Zabuza-sama's group has returned, and the operation was a success. Ao-san managed to spy out a supply room during the attack that turned out to contain several items of interest. They are duplicating the maps of the emergency tunnel system as we speak. Zabuza-sama believes that this may be what we need to make a full, final assault on the village."

_Interesting, a map of the tunnel system?_ The popular belief in Kirigakure had been that they were all collapsed sometime during the Nidaime's reign, but most chuunin-ranked and higher knew this to be a falsity, because they still had missions to clear out and patrol the sites in case of emergency. "I will move over to the tactics building immediately, then. Thank you for the update, Haku-kun, Chojuro-kun." She smiled again when Chojuro blushed at being addressed by name. He was so _cute!_

"Do itashimashite. We'll return to our patrol route now."

"Hai, hai, go on."

Standing, Mei scanned her makeshift desk and gathered any reports that seemed like they would be relevant. She pushed all thought of family and being bullied into leadership to the back of her mind. It was time to be a leader again.

* * *

Itachi was actually remaining home for more than a few hours at a time. It was a strange occurrence after nearly seven months during which she only managed to spot him at the occasional mealtime or right before he was leaving the house yet again. Of course, the only reason he was staying home was that he had come down with a mild flu of some sort. Mikoto wondered what it said about the state of affairs in her life that she was glad about that.

Lately, it seemed that she lived in a house divided. Fugaku had never been the best at keeping peace between them, even before they were married, but the tension was ridiculous now. If that wasn't trouble enough, Itachi seemed to subtly go out of his way to avoid ending up alone with his father for any reason, and it went beyond the irritated avoidance of years past. There was something going on that she didn't know about between them, and only her son's proven ability to take care of himself kept her from stepping in.

And, of course, things between her husband and Sasuke had never quite mellowed out. Ironically, it seemed to Mikoto that the reason they clashed so badly was simply because they were so alike. Sasuke had inherited all of his father's strongest qualities; a hard head, a long memory, and the ability to hold a serious grudge. The two of them might have made up by now, if either one of them was willing to give just a little. But she knew that even if reconciliation was possible at this point, they would never be the same proud father and admiring child from years before.

Luckily, Itachi's recalcitrance in dealing with his clan didn't extend to his otouto. Her eldest had always saved the softest spot in his heart for his baby brother, and even now, when there was obviously a large amount of stress upon his shoulders, Itachi still kept a warm tone and an open space in his rapidly changing schedule for Sasuke. Mikoto wished that _she_ could share the same closeness with her oldest that she had before, but it was enough for her that the boys were there for each other.

However, try as she might, she couldn't be quite so accepting of the knowledge that _outside_ of the clan, Itachi wasn't nearly as closed off. Of course, it was really only one person who managed to hold and keep his attention for long durations of time: Haruno Jinya. What had started off as the occasional lunch meeting had somehow turned into a real, tried and true friendship despite their differences in social status and shinobi ranking. Although Itachi and Jinya were both chuunin, technically, her son was in a rank all his own just by being apart of ANBU. Just the scheduling conflicts of their differing positions should've made the acquaintance fall apart, but it seemed that both of them were putting effort into it.

As a mother, Mikoto tried to look at it in a positive light. She loved that Itachi had a friend, one that he had made all on his own (somehow...) rather than one who had been chosen specifically as a good influence, like Shisui had. It really said something about his development, because no matter how skilled her son was, he tended to be very socially awkward after his first exposure to the world at large ended with teasing due to his small stature and feminine features. The gap between he and his peers had obviously widened when it was revealed that his mind operated on an entirely different level from other children. That he'd managed to make an acquaintance, let alone a friend, was a good sign.

On the other hand, as a mother, Mikoto found herself falling to jealousy once again. Itachi had always been close to _her_ as he grew up. They shared tiny secrets and hidden looks and silent ideals. He came to her for information when he was absolutely, utterly stumped and his pride allowed it. She'd trained him to use his first kunai and shuriken. Barring Sasuke, she might even have the gall to call herself his favorite person... Or the case had been such.

She supposed that it was a regular effect of knowing that her baby was growing up and, for all her desires, simply didn't need her anymore. Not the way he had. And she wasn't really bothered by Jinya, either, so much as the fact that it was someone other than her that Itachi was reaching out to.

_But certainly,_ Mikoto thought to herself, _he could spend more time within his own home when off-duty? It's so rare lately. I miss you, musuko..._ With the silent, cat-like grace that seemed to come to all kunoichi with time, she slid open the door to her son's room. Her eyes moved to the figure on the sheets, and she was unsurprised to find a smaller form curled up under the covers as well. _And I'm not the only one, it seems. Even Sasuke, who you make time for, is beginning to feel pushed away._ She sighed noiselessly. _But I suppose it could be worse._

The Uchiha matriarch closed the door again and moved back through the darkened halls of her home. Her destination was the kitchen. She never turned on the lights, but her eyes found the table easily. It was there that she sat for the next few hours, in the darkness, trying to make peace with different parts of her life and ruminating in the sort of peacefulness that could only be found in the dead of the night.

She was almost peaceful when, shortly before sunrise, an ANBU appeared crouching on the windowsill. She glanced at him, and managed a slight smile in the pre-dawn light. "I was under the impression that you put away the mask when you began teaching, Umino-kun," Mikoto voiced quietly, speaking up for the first time in hours. Of course, she knew that retirement from ANBU didn't actually exist. One didn't simply _retire_ from a family, after all.

Wolf tilted his head to the side silently, regarding her. Then he tossed her a parcel, not saying a single word as he slipped in through the window to stand by a counter. Wolf never had been one to speak much while he was in his mask, and even his mannerisms were completely different. It was probably the reason that his identity was actually a secret to most people, the way the more elite in ANBU never managed with their own names.

Mikoto unwrapped the parcel. Her fingers traced the white armor and sheathed tanto lovingly, before she rested her whole palm on the mask whose red lines formed the caricature of a panther. _I haven't been Kurohyou for a long time now..._ And nobody on the outside would ever know, as nobody had ever known the first time she took the position. _The secrets of ANBU will lay forever in ANBU, after all._

After observing her reaction to receiving the parcel, Wolf held out a scroll, and spoke for the first time. "Tomorrow, one hour after midnight, rendezvous at Lilac-Breathing-Earth. There is no need to come fully outfitted. Proceed as scheduled to your meeting with Hokage-sama, that has no bearing on this."

"Hai. Wakarimashita."

Before disappearing through the window once more, Wolf had another piece to say: "Operation Rabbit Hole is one where identities should not exist beyond the mask... For our own livelihood, far more than the village's."

Then, he was gone.

Mikoto stared after him for a moment, then turned back to the canvas-wrapped package sitting before her on the table. "I wonder what I have allowed myself to join in on this time...?" She mused quietly.

Then, with a sudden energy to her motions, she closed the package and stood from the table. The sun was rising and in mere hours, her family would be expecting breakfast before beginning the day. As tense as the house was, she intended to make the most of this day and memorize every good aspect of it. It would be something to hold onto later on.

And perhaps, she could even be grateful to Itachi's little outsider friend. It would do him good to have a peer who didn't view the world through a porcelain mask, and should anything happen to Mikoto...

She turned her thoughts away.

_Everything happens for a reason, I suppose._

* * *

To this very day, Tayuya wondered why she was surrounded by retards and the blind.

One would think, after she'd been specially picked to join the elite class for her intelligence and abilities, that somebody would pay attention to her observations. Or at least look at the same things that she tended to look at. Maybe she'd never given them any _obvious_ clues or hints, but really, this was a village full of shinobi! She shouldn't need to be giving any hints in the first place. They _should_ see this bullshit on their own.

_Though she is pretty skilled at covering her tracks..._ Although she would only admit it grudgingly, and certainly not in front of any of her Academy classmates, Tayuya did hold a certain amount of respect for the only other pink-haired person she'd ever met in her life. Even if it _was_ mostly because the girl was obviously an extremely practiced liar and actor, despite being nearly three years her junior.

It was just hard for her to fathom that Sakura didn't get caught at anything when she was using her notebook to practice forging signatures right in the middle of class, or playing with suppressing her chakra and changing its' signature during their practical jutsu lessons, or teaching all their classmates a bunch of "made-up" hand signals in lieu of passing notes behind Iruka-sensei's back. Hell, the fact that she could get anything past Iruka-sensei was a giant clue in itself! Anyone with two eyes (_and a functioning brain,_ Tayuya amended) could tell that their teacher was way more than the 'humble chuunin' he played. Besides, what village used anyone but the extremely talented to train up the next generation?

Honestly, she didn't really care _what_ Sakura was hiding underneath all the smarts and good-girl tendencies as much as she cared about managing to figure it out. Her instincts told her it was something big, and while she didn't necessarily care if Konoha ever found out about it, Tayuya would prefer the security of living somewhere where she _wasn't_ surrounded by dumbasses and people who apparently couldn't see past their own noses. If they couldn't tell that a nine year old was more than she seemed, even after several years of obvious (to Tayuya, at least) duplicity, how could they ever win the so-called "not-war" going on?

_I've known something was up since the first day I met her, and I'm an 'outsider' or whatever. How the fuck can they not see it?_ There was no way that some random civilian-raised seven year old should've known about the entrance exam protocol before the clan heirs did. And while it was true that some people were born with good chakra control, _that level_ of skill obviously came from training. And since when did eight year old girls know so much about poisons and antidotes before even going into the class? Tayuya didn't even want to get started on the way Sakura seemed to treat her peers with some sort of accommodating amusement, the way an uncle might watch over nieces and nephews. That wasn't normal, especially for 'child geniuses' who were documented to be socially awkward in more than ninety percent of the cases.

And yet... She was the only one to see it, somehow.

_Well, blondie obviously knows too,_ she admitted to herself after a moment, her eyes moving from the bored-looking Sakura to Naruto, who was staring at his paper with a blank look that she didn't think came from confusion. After spending a year and a half as the only person constantly suspiscious of Sakura' knowledge and abilities, it didn't really surprise her that she was the only one paying attention to the way Naruto had been acting recently.

Lately, in her observation of Sakura, she had frequently caught the whiskered blonde with a blank, almost dead sort of look that might have scared her if she was made of a weaker constitution. And when he did seem of aware of the world around him, he was almost always squinting and rubbing the side of his head, like he was thinking deeply on something or he had a constant headache. For a kid who had never missed a day of school due to sickness and who had the fortitude to keep fighting _with_ a broken wrist and _without_ a yell, that had to say something for the amount of pain he could possibly be in. Certainly, it was unsurprising that he seemed to become more and more forgetful as of late.

What pissed her off was that Sakura, his supposed best friend, didn't seem to notice anything going on at all. _How the fuck do you not notice that kinda shit going on?_ It was one thing for Sasuke to miss things; the kid was nice enough, but he was the baby of the class and most of his attention was focused on himself, because that was what he was used to. But Sakura was smarter than almost all of them and she always seemed to know everything she shouldn't about the things going on around her. How hard was it, then, to notice her _best friend_?

_Not that I care if she notices something's wrong with him,_ Tayuya reassured herself mentally with a scowl, focusing her eyes on the untouched notebook in front of her. _Just, she _should_ just notice. I only hang around with them because of Yakumo and Sai, after all. _It was impossible to be friends with Sai without being friends with Sakura and Naruto, because she and the blonde were apparently his favorite two people in the entire world. _That's way less time around him than her. So there._ She huffed quietly.

A nudge to the shoulder brought her back to the real world, and she looked up to find her surrogate brother standing in front of her. "What, dickwad?" She snapped at Shikamaru.

Used to the treatment, the brunette just glowered back at her. "Che. I'm sure you'd like to spend some more time staring at nothing, but class is over. Yakumo had to go home, and if you wanna catch up with Sai and the others, you'd better get moving before the glomping starts," Shikamaru informed her dully. With his piece said, he didn't wait for a response. Instead, he walked back to where Chouji and Kiba were waiting for him by the door, and the three left at once.

Cursing under her breath, Tayuya stuffed her things into her bag and rushed from the room, sparing no time for Ino, who had been sitting at her own desk and staring directly at her. She made it to the front gates of the Academy just in time to watch as Naruto exasperatedly put up with Sai hugging him and petting at his hair, a daily ritual at this point. As a part of her own daily ritual, she mentally told herself that she was only going to the park with them because Sai was funny, not because he was her friend or anything gushy like that.

She didn't spare much thought as to why Ino had been staring at her at the end of class. The girl was strange. Undoubtedly, it didn't mean anything at all.

* * *

Naruto wondered what Sakura was doing, climbing into his apartment window at ten in the evening. And then he berated himself, because really he should _know_ this, she'd told him earlier that day, before weapons practice... Or was it earlier that week, after Tsunade-sensei's quiz on the spinal cord and nervous system? He couldn't recall it clearly; he knew she'd informed him in the Academy, during a class where they sat together, but that was it. Maybe she'd told him once and reminded him...?

He felt a headache building behind his eyes, and he immediately stopped the train of thought. _It doesn't matter, Sakura-chan can come over any time she wants, for any reason. She's my best friend! And it's not like anybody else ever visits me..._ Aside from the days when Kakashi-nii came to his door unmasked to take him out for one reason or another, being at home was lonely.

"Naruto!" Sakura's loud whisper, directly in his ear, broke him from his reverie. "This is the worst possible time to space out! We only have an hour and a half, so hurry up and get dressed!" The pink haired girl sounded harried.

"Gomen ne, I'll hurry up." Even if he was confused over what he was supposed to be doing, Naruto _did_ remember that Sakura had been scared about _something_ that was supposed to happen this year. Maybe more than one _something_. And since she'd been so stressed he had bullied her into giving him more opportunities to help out... And then... And then...

_Come on, stupid brain!_ The blonde fought through his headache as he pulled open his dresser drawers. _It was... It was..._ Cerulean eyes caught a patch of black cloth, and suddenly, he remembered. _The clothes and the seal tags!_ It was a set of dark brown training clothes that could suit rough conditions and a stack of special papers that he could use for sealing with the chakra pre-stored in them. She'd researched the kind of seal they needed early last year, and he'd done his best to learn it perfectly. In fact, his hand knew it so well that he didn't even have to call up the image of it anymore.

How could he forget something he'd spent so many hours mastering?

Pushing the thought to the back of his head, the nine year old hurried to strip from his nightclothes and shimmy into the training suit. He nearly forgot the bandana to cover his hair, but a quick glance at Sakura's identical outfit reminded him. _Right. No more forgetting things. Can't mess this up._

On the other side of the room, Sakura fidgeted impatiently as she waited for Naruto to get ready. _I can't believe he forgot it was tonight, after we've been doing this every two weeks!_ The pink haired girl huffed mentally. However, she felt more apprehension than irritation, for the most part. Although this had to be the seventh or eighth time that the two of them had met up for a 'covert operation' and they had yet to be caught, she couldn't keep the images of their capture by some patrolling jounin, ANBU, or worse. She would be locked up and interrogated for secrets that could destroy the entire world, and whatever tenuous headway her friend had been making into being accepted by the village would crumble into nothingness.

She wasn't sure which one she dreaded more.

_What if something happens and Jinya is called out onto a mission while we're gone?_ The thought flashed through her mind.

Almost immediately, however, Sakura could practically feel her inner self's imaginary combat boot stomping it to pieces. _**Remember the policy, damnit! No distractions at all! **_The older version of her voice barked as if it were directly in her ear. _**It's one thing to fuck up on our own things, but we can't mess things up for Naruto! Especially while we're doing **_**this**_**!**_

_Hai... I know..._ Her eyes became half-lidded as Naruto began packing three of the pre-prepared tags into a separate pocket each, and she took deep, calming breaths that were timed against the motions of his arms. _Trust me, I know..._

'This' could aptly be described as infiltration and information planting. While her first, simple messages to the Hokage had been designed to see if the notes would be tested or completely disregarded, once Sakura had confirmed that the information was actually being used, even if sparingly, she had slowly begun to include clues to larger and larger pieces of the mystery surrounding the shinobi nations that everyone except her seemed to be unaware of. However, her initial method of passing on information had never been intended for sending anything truly important, not when a slip of hands or a wash cycle could mess it up.

Luckily, as a kunoichi, Sakura knew all sorts of tips and tricks for successful spying and infiltration, and as someone with a unique knowledge of Konoha's most commonly used protocols and detection systems, it was easy to develop her own methods of getting the information where she needed it to go. Although she still sent extremely important information directly to the Hokage, there were other ways and other _people_ available for her use.

She'd started off in a simple way; a note stuck to Izumo, one of the 'eternal chuunin's', back. He was patted on the back by so many people during the day and had so many jokes played on him as he ran office duties that it was easy to slip the note there unnoticed. And to make sure that someone that she _wanted_ would notice it, Sakura had timed her 'prank' for when Izumo and Kotetsu were on their way to the Hokage's office to deliver papers. The timing was everything in this case, because the note was made special by a seal almost identical to the one formerly on her locket; this one resonated directly with a hidden seal on the underside of the Hokage's desk.

Sakura knew of the seal because she and Shizune had used it to alert Tsunade of serious hospital emergencies or confidential information, in her original lifetime. But there was no way for Sarutobi to know that, and there was no way for anyone who hadn't been taught the seal directly to use it. This served the purpose of making sure that the Hokage received the note as soon as Izumo delivered yet another stack of papers. Incidentally, it also helped to cover what few tracks Sakura might leave and confuse them even more on the source of the notes, beyond that it had to be someone within Konoha.

A more secure tactic she'd used had been, ironically, the easier of the two. Naruto lived in the same building as Kakashi-sensei, who was still the reigning captain of ANBU for a reason she hadn't managed to discern. With scentless soap and gloves to remove any chances of leaving fingerprints, she left the coded letter in his mailbox during one of her visits to her blonde friend. There were no cameras because it was predominantly shinobi housing, and there was nothing to say that _she_ had left it versus the dozens of other messengers, children, and residents with access to the building. And since Kakashi-sensei was the captain of ANBU, it was inevitable that he took the note to either the Hokage or the head of T&I.

Unfortunately, there was some information that Sakura considered too sensitive for even _those_ methods. That was where Naruto came in.

"Ready, Sakura-chan? You have to close your eyes," the aforementioned blonde spoke up. By now, the two of them had exited the fairly treacherous window of his apartment and moved stealthily around to the back of the building, where one of Konoha's many convenient alleys lay.

She was used to this. Part of Naruto's usefulness came from his unprecedented knowledge of ANBU secrets, such as hidden pathways or meeting clearances. Unfortunately, Naruto was very strict when it came to those secrets: _'ANBU secrets are only revealed beyond the grave,'_ he'd recited solemnly. He seemed to be programmed with a multitude of sayings that all meant the same thing; what happened in ANBU stayed in ANBU. Not for the first time, Sakura wished that she'd accepted their invitation into the ranks so many years ago. Then she wouldn't need to get Naruto so deeply involved. _Not that he ever manages to stay out of messes._

Sakura nodded, and didn't protest when the hood of her drab brown suit was pulled down so far that she could see nothing but the black inside of the cloth. Still, it was relief to feel Naruto's small hands grasping her own a moment later, reminding her that she wasn't all alone in the night.

From there, she was led on. They went an unfathomable distance, although she'd counted one-hundred and eighty-seven noiseless footsteps, before she found herself tugged down onto hands and knees. They crawled, low to the ground, and underneath her hands the dirt changed to gravel, then pavement, then dirt, and gravel again. She resisted the urge to brush the tiny rocks off her gloved palms when, minutes later, she was pulled to stand up in someplace that felt distinctly humid, like a cave deep in the forest.

Then she could swear that she actually was in the forest, even though it should've been impossible to get from Naruto's house to the nearest gate, which was beyond the Uchiha district, at the careful pace they were taking. But still she heard the crickets and smelled the grass and could practically taste the freshness of the air on her tongue. And... _Lilacs?_ She thought, bewildered.

Naruto glanced back at Sakura as he led her through the trees, carefully navigating around branches, fallen leaves, and upturned roots as Inu had taught him long ago. He could almost smell her confusion... _Wait, no I can smell her confusion. I think. Right...?_ He almost faltered when his own confusion threatened to suddenly overwhelm him for no discernible reason, but somehow, he managed to keep it together and fight away the burgeoning headache.

_What's wrong with me?_ He tried to find a cause, a source, or at least find out when this strange affliction had started by going back in his memories; and then, all of a sudden, he stopped. A smile spread on his face, and his steps got lighter and almost bouncy, if possible. There was nothing wrong at all! There couldn't be. He would know if something was _wrong_ with him. It was all fine, fine, fine...

A nudge in the side brought him back to the real world, and the smile slowly faded from his face as Naruto blinked and looked around, wondering when he'd stopped. _Oh. We're here._ What had he been thinking about again...? He couldn't remember. _Eh, whatever. It doesn't matter._ He nudged Sakura back to say they were at the destination; if he had pinched her, it would've meant there was a delay of some sort, and a pat on the hand would've asked her silently to be patient.

Still blind to the world, Sakura untangled her gloved hands from Naruto's grip, then held them out, cupped as if she were about to scoop water from a basin. Moments later, a piece of paper fell into her hands. She could faintly feel the charge of chakra running through it. That, she assumed, came from the seal that Naruto had somehow searched out and learned earlier that year. It was different from the low level seals she knew how to employ; this seal had three purposes, which were privacy, space-saving, and eventually destruction.

With the wrong activation, the notes self-destructed. With the correct activation, the small papers, when set onto a proper surface, would unfurl into long coded messages. And if the messages weren't closed again after a half an hour, it all burned away into nothingness. The chakra running through the paper had the added bonus of making it nearly impossible to trace anything from it. The energy destroyed any fingerprints that might be left behind as well as scents, and if a sensor tried to track the chakra signature itself, that counted as an 'incorrect activation' and caused a self-destruct. Similarly, any application of chakra after the message was activated would make the words practically illegible.

By including all that information in simple writing on the back of the paper, Sakura had effectively destroyed all chances of tracking her down. Of course, she didn't write the correct activation on it. Ideally, the notes would only be read as three together, and if the smallest part was stolen or destroyed, then all of it was lost. Instead, she signified the activation in a more clever way:

The first paper, she blindly but deftly folded it into an origami crane. _Bird_.

The second one became a small rabbit. _Hare_.

And finally, _dog_.

She held two of the animals and Naruto held one as he led her to the center of what was probably a clearing of some sort, smelling strongly of Lilac, a flower she didn't know grew around Konoha. The paper dog was rested upright on the ground, with the rabbit sitting on it's back. Atop the rabbit rested the bird.

Bird-Hare-Dog was the unofficial seal combination that Academy teachers used to signal to one another about something either extremely promising or extremely terrifying in development. Accordingly, it was mostly shown during the first years' weapons practice sessions. In her original timeline, the sign seemed to be shown every time Sasuke showed off something new and every time Naruto mucked something up for the _nth_ time in a row. It hadn't been hard for Sakura to pick up on.

As a jutsu, the combination was completely worthless. As a code that nobody paid any sort of attention to, especially in this case, it was priceless. Sakura thought it was completely fitting for a series of notes describing in detail a group of S-Class nuke-nin with a single, insane goal in mind.

She nudged Naruto again when she was done, and they began backing away, each of them covering their tracks thoroughly step by step; they had the time to do so, since the meeting would supposedly be starting at one in the morning. They'd both be at home and asleep by then.

For a moment, Sakura regretted that she hadn't gotten to see the moonlit field that smelled so strongly of lilac. But she supposed that was a good thing; she might be tempted to come back at some point, which wasn't a good idea, considering that this was obviously a restricted zone.

Sakura wondered how Naruto had found out about this meeting in the first place, but she didn't ask. From experience, she knew that he wouldn't tell her; _ANBU secret_, after all. All she'd managed to get out of him was that the Hokage would be there along with several other high-ups on the shinobi ladder, and in this at least, she knew she could trust his judgement. He seemed to know _everybody_ for some reason.

_I guess I'll find out in due time._

* * *

Daisuke could swear that he'd seen his daughter crawl out of an alleyway near the house on her hands and knees, but in the moment he'd looked away before registering the strange thought, he turned back to find that it was simply an empty brown husk of cloth that looked much like a potato sack. He couldn't see anything pink around it, and couldn't fathom why his mind would play such a trick on him.

Shortly thereafter, he remembered that his daughter was training to be a shinobi and that she had her sneaky older brother as a favorite role model. The thought was enough to propel him forward, out of the shadows, and onto the porch of the house he'd been carefully avoiding going into for the past two hours. The mere experience of raising his hand to knock on the door was startling, in its' own understated way; how long had it been since he'd gone somewhere that didn't require blood, passwords or special acrobatics to get into?

The door opened faster than Daisuke had expected it to, and he found his body frozen in place when his eyes met the large jade orbs of his wife. She wore a nightgown and robe, her hair was half-mussed as if she'd been running her hands through it, and there were tiny lines at the corner of her eyes that hadn't been there the last time he was so close to her. Nadeshiko looked tired, and weary besides that.

He thought she was beautiful.

An awkward silence stretched between the two standing in the doorway: ten seconds, thirty seconds, a minute... It was a cool summer night's wind, rather than words, that finally shifted the air between them. Nadeshiko took two gentle steps backwards, silently inviting him in, and Daisuke accepted with hands that were shaking behind the long sleeve-ends covering them.

He was led to the kitchen, _like a guest,_ Daisuke thought, still unused to the pain in his chest after two years. _Like I've never been here before..._ Ironically, almost everything at the kitchen table had changed except for his chair, high backed and wooden and more scratched and beaten than the ancient couch in the one-room apartment where he now lived. But the chair looked considerably more cared for...

Sitting across from him at the table, it was Nadeshiko who finally broke the silence in low voiced tones. "You came."

There was on odd note of surprise in her voice, if he strained to hear it. And Daisuke was straining. He wanted to imprint it onto his memory, so that maybe he could hold onto the sounds for another few years without them fading. _Lovely as ever... _"I'll always come when you call." It was a cheesy line, but true. "...I'm just surprised that you asked for me." He'd been more shocked and disbelieving than surprised, really, when Inoichi delivered the message to him. _What could it possibly be...?_

Nadeshiko found herself closing her eyes as his baritone voice washed over her in the quiet kitchen. His voice had always managed to soothe her through the worst of his panics, because he remained as placid as a lake, even in the center of a forest fire. The redheaded woman couldn't help but marvel at the way that even now, Daisuke managed to remain calm and still despite the situation they found themselves in. _It always has been hard to make him show his panic..._ The barest of smiles managed to pull at her lips, and she opened her eyes again, feeling braver, and as if the world around her was _real_ all of a sudden.

She could do this.

Until that very moment, one of her hands had remained tightly clenched, clasped against the chest of her robe. Now, she relaxed her arm and fingers alike, then reached her hand out to where Daisuke's lay flat and unmoving on the table. She placed a slim band of gold before him, then grasped both his hands, even as he simply sat there and blinked stupidly at the piece of metal.

"Daisuke... You were a damned fool," she stated simply. "This... _All_ of this... Could've been avoided very easily if you had just _thought_. Instead, you got caught up in something that put my entire family, down to the last unborn child, in mortal danger." Nadeshiko paused at his flinch, then continued, "I'm never going to forget that terror, that anguish, and the hard times that have followed. But, in the loving example of my mother, who I will always trust to guide me, I have spent the last two years fighting to forgive you."

Now, his enlarged eyes were locked on hers, rather than the gold band sitting between their hands.

"You're lucky. I never stopped loving you, no matter how much it hurt. And I could never bring myself to hate the face I see reflected in our children every day when I wake. You made the largest bluster that I imagine anyone could make... But something tells me that it would be far worse if I were ever to let you go." She smiled at him, then pulled his hands closer to her so that she could rest her cheek against them. "I've told myself it would be better to let you go. The things you're involved in now, even if they are for Hokage-sama... They terrify me. And... I can't bear the thought of you dealing with them on your own." Nadeshiko sighed quietly, then looked at him, taking the chance to enjoy his rare shell-shocked expression. "Tonight, you'll leave to your meeting. Maybe you'll be sent off on the next terrifying mission, not to be seen again for weeks. But when you do come back..." She shifted his hands from her cheek to resting above her heart. "You have a home here, and your loved ones will be waiting. Even if they don't know it."

Then, before Daisuke could process anything with his fairly broken mind, Nadeshiko slipped the ring back onto his finger and stood, leading him to the front door once again. In the open door, she stood on the tips of her toes to press her lips at his ear, and murmured: "Perhaps the gentle life of civilians simply wasn't our fate. We'll never know, I think. For now, however... Lilac-Breathing-Earth. I have no idea what that means, but I'm sure you do." She brushed a kiss over his cheek. "Go."

If it were up to him alone, Daisuke would be standing and staring at that closed door for a very long while. But it wasn't. So he cooperated with Wolf as he was being led to some place for a meeting he'd undoubtedly have trouble focusing on, and tried to pretend his eyes could focus on anything besides the ring he hadn't worn for two years. It had never occurred to him that he might one day be forgiven.

_Is this real, koibito...?_

In the haze, he completely forgot about checking on his daughter's room.

* * *

A/N: I'm so jealous of **DigitalTart**, the author of **One Small Kindness**. They wrote their story around Mikoto and Itachi rather than Sakura, and it is turning out so _awesome_. You should all go read that! It's only ten chapters right now, but it's still amazing! It deserves more reviews! Go read and review it!

And **Tayuya**... For those familiar with the Fairly Odd Parents: Tayuya is the Crocker in this story. Sort of. I find it amusing, in any case.

As for what I'm planning? Aside from some vague ideas (usually the ones that can be categorized as mindfucks), I don't know what's going to happen in this story until I'm actually writing it. Though to be fair, the next chapter is partly mapped out. (**It's the half of this chapter that I cut off because this was too long. =D**)


	24. T h e B i g R e v e a l

Oh, **ye readers of little faith**... Take this** excessively long chapter **unto yourselves and **be appeased**.

* * *

The witching-hour conclave at Lilac-Breathing-Earth was destined to begin in tension, it seemed.

Any meeting to be held in a highly-secured ANBU conference location was already cause for concern; ANBU locations were the places where secret war councils were held and the assassinations of country leaders were planned out in excruciating detail. The timing of the meeting also sent a red flag out to anyone paying attention: _the witching hour_ was a term coined for the time between midnight and three in the morning, the hazy hours when families were asleep and patrols were invisible. It was also something of a code or symbol, with only one meaning: _sensitive information will be imparted._

'Sensitive' as in 'hazardous to your continued health,' that is. Understandably, meetings at the witching hour were practically a trademark for all the major operations and findings relative to Operation Rabbit Hole. Still, none of them had ever been at the notorious Lilac-Breathing-Earth location.

Rumor had it that the last situation to be dealt with in Lilac-Breathing-Earth was the decision of how to handle the Sandaime Mizukage and his reign of insanity, which had breached the very edges of Hi no Kuni's borders.

Accordingly, to this day, there were still no records to be found of the Sandaime Mizukage having relations with Konoha or existing at all, even though memory served to say it was true.

Knowing the history of the meeting point far more intimately than any of his subordinates, Sarutobi was less than pleased at needing to be there for the second time in his long tenure as Hokage. When he came to the clearing along the special path, painstakingly appeasing each security seal along the way, and found that it had somehow been _breached_ in the six hours since he had come earlier to make preparations for the meeting, his tension levels absolutely skyrocketed.

But the pile of origami in the center of the clearing passed every possible check the he and Kakashi, his ANBU escort for that day only, could think of. Sarutobi was wary anyways. However, in the past year or so, he'd gotten very used to receiving information in the strangest of ways, and the way the chakra of the innocent looking papers pulsed was familiar. Too familiar, really.

As the meeting time drew nearer and nearer, he and Kakashi came to the silent conclusion that they simply had to be moved. It would be less dangerous to have the meeting in another location, especially since this one was possibly compromised despite no avenues for information leakage being found, but three days was already far too long to be putting off the issue being raised during this meeting, and no other location was secure. So the Sandaime relied on his gut instinct and bent over to lift the papers up.

Nothing happened.

Another silent debate had Sarutobi deciding to unfold the papers rather than wait with them as a leaden weight in his robe pockets. The dog and the hare were completely blank, although they pulsed with chakra. The bird, on the other hand, held a surprisingly straightforward message: He should know how to activate it. If it was activated incorrectly, it would self-destruct. If it was left activated for too long, it would self-destruct. If it was left alone too long, it would self-destruct. If it was tampered with while activated, it would self-destruct. After two weeks, it would self destruct. Also, the information was code red level three sensitive.

Although the original language was more sophisticated, that was the gist of the message. And with those simple words, the informer was guaranteed anonymity and full attention to the information as soon as it was being handled.

It took almost no deliberation for Sarutobi to decide that the papers would need to be kept between himself and Kakashi, at least until the meeting was fully resolved. _One stress after another, and they all seem to pile on at the same time,_ the aged man thought. He glanced slyly at the inu-masked ANBU standing impatiently to his left. _I can't wait to retire!_

His mind turned away from retirement and vacations and sensitive origami-information as, one by one, the circle of people involved in the ongoing Operation Rabbit Hole began to trickle into the clearing. Morino Ibiki and Aburame Shibi were the first to appear, and each of the stoic males took up positions near the center of the clearing. Nara Shikaku trailed in behind the pale-looking Yamashiro Aoba, who undoubtedly had some idea of what was going to be discussed due to his propensity for information gathering. Inoichi, Wolf, and Daisuke were next, with the former two on either side of the blank-faced latter, whose mind appeared to be somewhere far away from Lilac-Breathing-Earth.

The last to appear was Uchiha Mikoto, in her panther masked ANBU guise. Hiruzen, Wolf and Inu were the only ones not to tense at her appearance, but no words were exchanged and no weapons were drawn; Kurohyou simply took up her place next to the other two ANBU, and when no move was made to stop her by their leader or the other masked elites, her presence was silently accepted. Undoubtedly, she was there for a reason.

Hiruzen focused all attention onto the people before him, and decided that introductions could wait. For now, he would go straight into the most important parts of the meeting. "In the next several minutes, I will be having some of you report to the Operation at Large on specific matters which will be relevant to our main topic of discussion. Shibi, your team's most recent surveillance enterprise in Rice Country, if you will."

The Aburame stepped forward and kept his report short, clipped, and precise. "Otogakure no Sato has expanded approximately two kilometers into the surrounding lands. While there are no visible signs of it happening, all signs point to the amassing of an attack force of unknown size. Two unknown shinobi estimated to be of high A or low S-class ranking were sighted entering and leaving the gates of Oto multiple times over the course of two weeks with several packages suspected to contain weapons and armor stock from an unknown location. On the last day of observation several small forces were mobilized and headed in the direction of Kusagakure and Takigakure. Due to increased patrols in the area my team was unable to move closer and infiltrate the village to gather more information before the end of the mission's time parameters." He stepped back.

The Sandaime gave everyone a moment to absorb the information, then gestured to Daisuke, who had gained a more focused air since his arrival in the clearing. "Ghost, relevant information from the mission report from your recent time observing the Ame border."

Stepping forward as Shibi had, the gray eyed male began tersely, "Multiple small forces were being mobilized and moved along the border in the direction of Takigakure and Kusagakure. The numbers were not large, but it was impossible to get an actual count due to a strange cloaking technique being used. Further observation on the return to Konoha noted that the borders of both Takigakure and Kusagakure have become tighter than usual; no foreign shinobi or civilians are being tolerated." He stepped back.

"Wolf."

The ANBU member stepped up and spoke in low tones: "One. Observation and protection detail on members of the Hyuuga ichizoku has been increased due to a recent change in movements. All main house members are recently restricting their interaction to family and allied family only. Movements outside of the clan compound have dropped drastically." He held up two fingers. "Two. A vague testimony by an ANBU member codenamed 'Bear' points to observation of one Uzumaki Naruto by various members of the Hyuuga branch house recently as they run 'errands.' Three. Starting several weeks ago, notably close to the date that Hyuuga Hinata uncharacteristically decimated all of her taijutsu opponents during a sparring series, including Uzumaki-san, the boy's behavior, grades, memory, and chakra control have all become exceedingly unstable with no source that scans have been able to detect."

Sarutobi raised a hand up just in time to stall verbal exclamations. Still, it would be impossible to miss the way that all the members of operation Rabbit Hole tensed; it was especially pronounced in Inu, Shibi, Inoichi, Shikaku, and Kurohyou. Of course, all of them except Inu had children in the same class as Naruto and Hinata, and both Mikoto and Kakashi had a vested interest in the blonde boy's continued well-being.

"You will remain silent. All explanations can be handled in due time." He turned to Mikoto, and gestured for the panther masked woman to speak. "Kurohyou. What we dealt with earlier today, if you will."

Kurohyou seemed to visibly take a deep breath to calm herself before speaking. "As all members of the full civilian, shinobi and clan councils should recognize, Lord Hyuuga has been advocating against the placement of Uzumaki-san in classes with his heir since it was announced. Similarly, Lord Hyuuga has proven himself rather resentful to the seeming 'excessive attention' paid to Uzumaki-san by the collective Uchiha House, as shown in their sponsoring his placement in the Academy and providing for his housing and utilities. He has also implied that this excessive attention has ulterior motives that maybe misconstrued as treason against Konoha. Several offhanded remarks have been made by Lord Hyuuga, claiming that the Uchiha are already using Uzumaki-san's unique circumstances to further their position in the village and gain more power than they are intended to have. Rumors have also been appearing in certain circles, implying that the Uchiha intend to use Uzumaki-san's _special tenant_ against Konoha. My duty has been the investigation of these rumors and their source."

The Sandaime found himself silently admiring her composure as she stepped back; if it weren't for the fact that he already knew her identity, he would never have guessed that it was the Uchiha matriarch herself making the report. "Now... Ibiki, Inu, either one of you can share this report."

Kakashi and Ibiki shared a glance, and it was Ibiki who stepped up to speak. "An unknown Hyuuga main house member on the Hyuuga Council has opened up communications that traverse between an outpost on the border we share with Kusagakure and Takigakure in the past months. One message was intercepted; the code was high level and eventually broke down into a verse from a well-known poem: _the brisk December winds/carrying along the frozen rain/send all travelers to ground/in search of fire and warmth_." He didn't clarify his words as he stepped back, and didn't need to. The references to December, Rain or Ame, 'to ground', and 'in search of fire' provided all the information neccessary.

It was late May.

Yamashiro Aoba spoke up next, with barely any prompt. "The information networks we've been monitoring since the Operation began are going to ground in some places and spreading wider in others. Most notably, those we have wired in Hi no Kuni and the bordering countries to the south-west, such as Kusagakure, Takigakure, and Ame are spreading out and all others are either being moved to assist or disabled. Those Konoha has subverted have received orders to go to ground like all the others, and have been moved to safe houses in the past month since reports began. The exchange of information has made a drastic drop."

Shikaku didn't have any prompt at all. "Hidden Rock and Earth Country are shoring up their defenses. Trades have increased drastically in dry goods, medical supplies, rice, and precious metals while becoming almost negligible in other areas. Patrols have increased. Teams have been spotted moving between the Earth Country border and both Takigakure and Kusagakure. All reports indicate that they're preparing for something."

"Indeed," Sarutobi murmured, looking around at his soldiers. "I trust that we are all seeing the same picture being painted?"

It was impossible not to. The collective thoughts among the subordinates could be summed up in one word: _Fuck_.

* * *

_"That's the wrong one, Naruto-baka! Hurry up and go get the right scroll! We only have an hour!"_

_"Heheheh, gomen nasai Sakura-chan." A pause. "Um... Which one was the right scroll again?"_

_"Argh!"_

Sakura woke up from her dream feeling terrified. This wasn't anything new; she saw many things when she went to sleep, and generally, they were never anything pleasant. If she wasn't dreaming of Jinya's funeral, she was remembering battles with Sasuke. If not Sasuke, then the Akatsuki and Madara, or a companion's death, or time spent in a hospital as the patient rather than the doctor, or any other number of things that could've turned out _better_ if only something had gone differently.

Tonight, she dreamed of the original Team 7. If it were only the memories, she would probably be able to deal with them without fear. Things had definitely _changed_, and those were just reminders, of a sort. This time, however... It hurt her heart and set shivers deep in her bones to remember how Naruto had acted. Or rather, the pain came from the instant parallels her mind drew between _now_ and _then_ when thinking about her friend's behavior.

For days, now, Sakura had been trying to deny that it was happening; her best friend was changing back into the person she'd expected to see when she first met him. The constant fidgeting, his shortening attention span, the way he sometimes faltered when writing papers, and many other small clues had all been brushed off each time she noticed them; there was always a better excuse if she looked around. And anything was better than thinking she would be losing her friend to... _Something_.

And maybe that was the real kicker. She couldn't think of any reason, or any possible way, for this to be happening. People didn't spontaneously become retarded for eight years and then mellow back out again, right?

Except, from what she knew, that was exactly what was happening to Naruto.

And she had no idea how to fix it.

It was _scary_, in a way that not many things could really frighten her anymore. It was like a giant sign flashing in her face: _You've Changed So Much But You Can't Change This? _It made her think that maybe, just maybe, all the changes she'd made didn't really matter. Maybe her entire family would slowly be picked off one by one since the Reunion had gone differently. Maybe Jinya's teammate would still get bad information and lead the whole squad into death. Maybe Konoha would still end up as nothing but a pile of rubble and broken bodies in the end...

_No! It can't, it can't, it can't! I won't let it!_ Curling into herself, Sakura gripped the sides of her head tightly and hoped the rolling of her stomach would calm before she puked. _I won't let it happen again, I can't..._

* * *

Watching Sakura come into their Academy classroom on Thursday morning, Ino could tell that she was on a mission. Her constant people watching had taught her all sorts of interesting things about body language and vocal inflections; just from Sakura's straight-backed posture and the way her fists curled slightly as she called a quieter than usual greeting to Sasuke and Naruto, she could see that something important had changed for the pink-haired girl between yesterday and this morning. And she didn't think it was whatever mysterious thing she and Naruto seemed to get up to every few weeks this time.

Sitting at her desk and watching inconspicuously as more students trickled in, keeping Sakura in her peripheral view, the Yamanaka heir thought this was a time when she'd like to use her newest trick. With almost no friends, a father that was always busy with top-secret work, and a mother that cared more for politics than her only daughter, Ino had a great deal of free time on her hands and not much to do with it besides learning, training, or wandering. Recently, she'd taken to sneaking into her father's study to look at the clan scrolls; specifically, the Yamanaka jutsu dossier.

The most recent technique she'd picked off of her scrolls was an interrogation technique. It was the first that she had ever learned, because messing with the human mind without proper training was dangerous for both user and victim. But this jutsu, in particular, was the easiest in that category of the Yamanaka techniques, and Ino thought that she could handle it. It simply read prominent surface thoughts.

For weeks, now, she'd been practicing it on her classmates during lectures. It had started with honing her chakra sensing abilities, so that she could choose a specific mind to read from. And then she'd had to teach herself, patiently, to focus her chakra into the hand seals for the technique silently so that she wouldn't be caught. Then, once she actually managed to perform the jutsu, she had to be able to keep the connection up for more than a few seconds. The final stage, which she hadn't gotten to yet, was managing to use the technique properly without maintaining eye contact.

Ino had been incredibly excited the first few times she managed to use it, especially when she could keep it up for more than thirty seconds from the very start. However, she'd run into certain complications with her classmates as she was teaching herself the technique. For example, Shino frequently thought in a language more native to insects than humans, Shikamaru made it a point to try not thinking at all, Naruto's surface thoughts simply couldn't be read, and both Yakumo and Sakura had some sort of strange static-duality blocking their thoughts, as if more than one person was speaking at a time.

She'd been looking forward to seeing what went on in Sakura's head...

However, in the course of searching for someone who she could effectively practice the technique on, Ino had come across something infinitely more curious to occupy herself with: Hinata's strange guilt towards Naruto and Tayuya's take on the situation. It was one thing to _see_ the way Hinata suddenly began avoiding Naruto and turning red randomly, which most people had come to assume was a crush.

But it was something different entirely to notice what Tayuya noticed about it, like the way Hinata only blushed when she looked at Naruto's neck, or the way it had started on the same day that Naruto began having troubles in class, or the silent struggles both of the two seemed to be having when nobody else was looking. Her thoughts on Sakura were especially intriguing, since Ino hadn't noticed _half_ the things the older pink-haired girl pointed out in her mind about Sakura, despite all the people watching she did.

Because Sakura really did practice forging signatures in her notebook and play with hiding her chakra while they were practicing jutsu. And the knowledge that the pink girl had really was only open to Naruto, who was one of the few people who was never surprised when she did something almost-extraordinary. Sakura _did_ deliberately slow down her hand signs when she was practicing jutsu, she _did_ hold back her punches during sparring lessons, and she _did_ teach their classmates things that were typically considered advanced for their age.

Part of Ino wanted to confront Tayuya, or Sakura, or even Hinata, and get everything out into the open. But the majority of her was enjoying the thrill of a mystery, of digging up secrets and information that nobody else really knew all on her own. She wondered if maybe, that was what her father felt about his job in the Torture and Interrogation department. Maybe, if she showed him that she felt the same about finding out secrets, he would spend more time with her...

_No!_ Ino thought with a slight scowl to herself, folding her arms on the desk as Chouji and Shikamaru walked past her in the aisle. _I can't tell daddy I've been going through the scrolls... I'm not supposed to be looking at them..._ But it was a nice fantasy, for just a few moments. It would've been nice to show off her skills to her father. _I guess I just have to stick with mysteries of my own._

_Then again, I can probably find out some more today,_ Ino thought, locking her eyes on Tayuya just as Iruka-sensei walked into class, looking as if he hadn't gotten any sleep at all. _Tayuya is getting agitated with all the things being hidden, and she's thinking about doing something with it today._ Her gaze shifted minutely, landing on Hinata's hunched form instead. _Maybe I can help her...?_

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and Ino immediately snapped her attention the front, where she found Iruka staring directly at her with slightly narrowed eyes. She stared back at him for a moment, then opened her notebook and pulled out her pencil, and tried very hard not to blush when he raised an eyebrow at her before continuing with his lecture on desert terrain stealth tactics. The few people that had bothered to turn and stare at her during the short interlude went back to taking notes; what had just happened was a very common occurrence with Ino.

When she got over her embarrassment, the pale blonde haired girl wasn't too bothered. She was good at focusing on different things, and even if she hadn't been paying direct attention to the beginning of the class, the information was still stored in the back of her head. It was something all children of the Yamanaka clan picked up long before coming to the Academy.

And at that moment, Ino was relying on it. _I'll just practice finding the auras without visual contact again,_ she decided. _If I can just figure out what Tayuya is deciding to do, or what Hinata is hiding, then..._ Hm. What then? She couldn't just go up to Tayuya out of nowhere and ask to help her. And she didn't think she had the _cajones_ to walk up to the Hyuuga Heir and threaten her for information. But she _did_ want to know...

Her eyes turned to Sakura. The pink haired girl wasn't even pretending to take notes at the moment. Her classmate's head was resting lightly on the desk, and although her eyes were focused on Iruka, Ino could tell that her mind was a million miles away. She'd long since figured out that the deeper in thought Sakura was, the more her hands fidgeted; right now, she was pulling thread after thread out of the bottom of her orange shirt.

Maybe... Maybe, she could go to Sakura...? _She's Naruto's best friend. And Tayuya's right, she is stronger and smarter, so maybe if I tell her some of what's going on and get help, she'll tell _me_ what's going on...? _Ino bit her lip. She knew that for some reason, Sakura didn't seem to like her at all, but maybe this could be a way to make friends. After all, Sakura would definitely want to know the things happening to Naruto, right? And then, maybe Sakura would see that there was nothing wrong with Ino, and they could be friends.

And maybe Ino wouldn't be so goddamned _lonely_ anymore...

"Ow!" She hissed and rubbed her forehead, which had just deflected a piece of chalk. This time, she did nothing to fight her blush as she looked up at the irritated Iruka, who seemed to be more agitated than usual in the midst of her classmates' quiet laughter. "Gomen nasai, sensei!"

"Hm. Two sets after class before you can join in for physical training." And with that, Iruka turned his attention away and continued to lecture.

Ino sighed mentally to herself, sinking lower in her seat. _I guess any plans will have to wait until I'm done with my push ups._

At the front of the classroom, Iruka found himself keeping an eye on Ino from the corner of his eye. With a few minutes to calm himself down, he found that he actually felt the tiniest bit guilty for drawing attention to her when she wasn't being particularly disruptive. However, at the moment, it was very easy for him to become agitated with things going on.

Ever since the conclave two nights ago, he'd been more tense than usual, which was saying something considering that he had to train small children to use pointy weapons and destructive techniques during the day while deflecting assassination attempts and producing report after report during the night on a regular basis. The news that there was a large operation that may end in a coup on his village was more than enough to send most people over the edge, especially when considering the outside political situation. A coup in the strongest of the five great villages could send their 'not-war' into Armageddon.

And, of course, there was the issue of their anonymous informant, which had been brought up when every possible detail on the Hyuuga and their plans had been exhausted. The fact that anyone had broken into the highly secured ANBU meeting place at all was nerve-wracking, especially when considering that by doing so, they'd been backed into a corner and forced to use the spot anyways despite potential breaches.

However, the pinnacle of the night had come as they were hashing out facts and trying to recreate their list of suspects for the informants. They knew it was a high-ranking shinobi with clearance to almost all levels of files and seals. They knew it was someone with connections to the T&I department and ANBU. It was obviously someone who knew not only their public schedules for operations but also the schedule for their most well-kept, secret operations that were only arranged with twenty or so hours to prepare.

And when they'd been eliminating names, at the end of it all... Each and every sign pointed to it being _Wolf_ who was informing them of everything. His only saving grace was that as an Academy Instructor, especially of the class he was assigned to, the Hokage knew he had almost no time during the day to be gathering any of the information being given to them. Similarly, it was well known that Wolf could only barely complete the most rudimentary sealing techniques available, and some of the codes simply couldn't have ever been exposed to him. It was absolutely absurd to believe that he was their anonymous informer, especially when he could just come out and say anything in person.

Unfortunately, believing it was him was still _less_ absurd than it was to believe that any of the other candidates were the ones providing all their inexplicable Intel, especially since only the Hokage and Kakashi knew of his identity beneath the mask. And while there was no reason for punishment even if it was him, which it _wasn't_, the fact that he seemed to have been chosen as a gopher of sorts was a problem in and of itself.

And now, Inoichi just wouldn't give up on his horrible 'Wolf in Sheep's Clothing' jokes.

_I bet he would stop them awfully quickly if I told him about how his sweet, innocent little princess has been practicing advanced clan techniques on her classmates since she started in the Academy,_ Iruka thought, smiling wryly to himself as he wrote notes on the board. _I'd tell him, too, if it wouldn't compromise my identity. Wolf in sheep's clothing indeed..._ He lightly shook his head. _Kids these days get into the strangest situations._

The thought was only emphasized when Iruka turned around and saw loud, brash Tayuya tossing a note at shy little Hinata's head.

Of course, it was unusual, but there was no way for him to know that he was witnessing the beginning of a breakdown among his students.

* * *

She'd always found Naruto a little amazing, ever since that first day of school where he noticed how quiet and alone and _friendless_ she was, and decided it wouldn't hurt to go over and talk to the failure Hyuuga heir. Sure, everyone and their mother seemed to have something bad to say about him as well, but being in the same boat as her didn't obligate him to be so nice. If anything, a normal person would've stayed away to try and save what little good reputation they had.

Certainly, Hinata had contemplated giving it a try. But she'd already known that _not_ associating with Naruto would have absolutely no effect on her father's opinion of her when everything was said and done. Considering the situation that she was in now, however, perhaps it would've been better for everyone in the long run if she tried to dislike Naruto the way that everyone else seemed to. Maybe then, she would never have been looked at as a potential way to reach him.

If they weren't friends, maybe she wouldn't be a betrayer at that very moment.

Hinata gazed at him from the corner of her eyes, doodling listlessly on the edges of her notebook rather than writing down any information. Although her bloodline wasn't fully activated, it had been years since she'd seen the world the way that other people did. Her peripheral vision was just as clear as anything she saw by staring straight ahead. This fact had created more than a little bit of resentment within her up until the past few weeks; without it, she surely would've been caught staring at Naruto by now, especially with her constant desire to know where he was and how he was doing.

It was baffling and awe inspiring that some way, somehow, Naruto was still keeping up just fine with all their classwork. His chakra control had degraded and he took noticeably longer to complete tests and worksheets, but although his class ranking had dropped, he was still with them. Maybe he really could fight this away on his own...?

_No!_ She admonished herself mentally, turning her eyes to the ground but keeping him in her sights. _I can't keep holding myself back! I have to tell someone what I did!_ The pale eyed girl cringed mentally at the thought of the punishment she would undoubtedly receive from both whoever she confessed to and her father, should he find out. _Maybe I'll be taken out of the Academy, and I'll never be eligible to be a shinobi... But... I can't just sacrifice him because I'm scared! He wouldn't do it, so I won't either!_

It was even more important that she tell someone because of what she'd overheard just recently. The night previous, Hinata had remembered that there would be a 'tea meeting' between her father and the council of Hyuuga elders, which was a frequent occurrence in the past year or so. She'd been dying to find out exactly what she had done to Naruto with that seal, but there was no way that her father or anyone else would ever answer her questions; thus, her only option had been sneaking around.

Luckily, Hinata's stealth scores were some of the highest in the class, barring Naruto himself. It was a skill she'd honed to near-mastery almost without noticing, seeing as she lived in a house full of people that could see through walls and had eyes in the backs of their heads. Still, up until that night, she'd never been so very glad that she was good at sneaking around unnoticed...

_"...weak little heir obviously messed something up in the process," Elder Kamsa was addressing her father. "The container's thought processes and memory have degraded as expected, but there is still nothing feral about him, and he isn't taking to the mental suggestions as he should be."_

_"There is also the issue of his chakra control, and these headaches he appears to be suffering. The sudden alterations in his skill level are far too noticeable. Any fool would know that no Uchiha would do something so overt to the container, especially if they are using him as the rumors are meant to suggest. They would make him dependent on them and highly skilled so as to make a more efficient weapon."_

_The references the elders made to 'the container' were a bit confusing, although Hinata recognized that they were speaking of Naruto. Perhaps she was just reading their lips wrong? That had never been her forte, and her Byakugan wasn't as developed as many of her cousins'..._

_Her father was as expressionless as ever, but she had more than enough experience with moods to tell that he was becoming aggravated. "To refer back to my words which you disregarded when developing this plan of action, I did caution you the the effects of this seal would not be reliable with the container." His gaze hardened. "Any fool with basic sealing knowledge would know that when two different seals interact, they often mutate in order to accommodate each other. The boy is already carrying the most complex blood-based seal known to man on his body. The fact that the seal tag functioned in any limited capacity after my heir _successfully_ placed it is a boon."_

_There was a small, downtrodden piece of her that perked up when she saw that her father was defending her. But it soon fell back into the shadows as she remembered that it was more of a slight against him than anything to say that he had produced a weak child; his pride wouldn't take the insult. Hinata pushed it to the back of her mind, and instead wondered what they meant when referring to the complex seal Naruto supposedly had on his body. She'd certainly never seen it._

_"Regardless of the seal's effectiveness, there is now proof that the boy was tampered with in some way and sufficient rumors planted among the populace to make it seem as if the Uchiha may be responsible. This will hold the power they have been garnering recently at bay for some time, and some time is all that we need. I have received communications indicating that December is our appointed time."_

_Her father's lips became even thinner than before, if possible. He was obviously against whatever would be happening in December. But, if he was against it, why would he give her the seal tag in the first place? Nobody would know it if he hadn't. Everyone expected her to fail..._

_"And I suppose the masked menace of a stranger you have decided to entrust the well-being of the Hyuuga to has appeared once again to confirm it?" His tone was sour, and that meant he was _really_ unhappy._

_It was seventy year old Elder Shimon that scoffed at Hiashi's tone. "Hold your cautious tongue, child. Even you have witnessed that he is more powerful than all of us in this room at our prime, combined. And he is looking to destroy the Uchiha, our enemies. What kind of fools would we be to turn him down when we could have that power working towards our same goals instead of against us?" He stood, slowly, to leave. It was an unofficial dismissal to everyone in the room._

_Hinata supposed she was the only one to see the soundless words he sent at their backs:_

_"The same kind of fools who believed in trusting the well being of Konoha to Shimura Danzo." There was a pause, and he seemed to sigh. "This may be the end for the Hyuuga, the Uchiha, the container... For Konoha as we know it..."_

Hinata had barely gotten any sleep last night as she tossed and turned over what she had heard. It made no sense to her, but one thing was very clear: by following her father's orders, she'd helped to put Naruto in the middle of something very big and very dangerous. She was terrified that she'd just put the first person to willingly make friends with her to death just because she wanted approval from her father, and scarier still was that if she tried to fix things, she might be destroying herself in his stead.

_But... _Watching as Naruto struggled to answer several questions that had been put on the board by Iruka, questions he never would've gotten a headache over before, her decision was made. _I have to redeem myself. Even if it means I'll never get to see Naruto-kun again... I can't be a betrayer. I can't!_ She would have to tell someone. _Maybe Iruka-sensei...?_ But then, he got so scary when he was angry. What if he didn't hear everything before they threw her in a cell somewhere?

_Tsunade-shishou?_ Even more terrifying, to tell the truth. Tsunade loved Naruto almost more than the other students in their Medic classes, and it was obvious in the way that she patiently allowed him to keep struggling to keep up, even though he wasn't really suited for the position of medic at all.

Hinata cycled through possibility after possibility; she couldn't speak to anyone too high ranking, because they probably didn't have the time for her and wouldn't listen seriously. And it wasn't really something she could write in a note or letter. There were also certain people who would probably go straight to her father instead of the Hokage or the ANBU Captain. She needed someone she could trust, someone who would listen to everything she said, someone like... Like...

_Mizuki-sensei, maybe?_ Their new teacher's aide for taijutsu training was a very nice man, and he always encouraged them to come to him with any problems they might have. And unlike many adults, he seemed to like Naruto and never said anything mean about him. Surely, he would be the best person to go to. _Mizuki-sensei then. I'll tell him during taijutsu practice today, and then, he'll get help for Naruto-kun!_ She nodded firmly to herself; it was decided.

And then, moments after the bell rang to signal the end of lecture, Tayuya came out of nowhere and grabbed her before she left the classroom and the decision she'd only just made crumbled into dust.

_No plan survives contact with the enemy. Huh._

* * *

That Thursday, Sakura went into school with a plan. Her plan involved lots of focused observation on her best friend during classes, less focused observation on the people they ran into on a daily basis in order to see if they knew anything about his recent changes in behavior, and directly searching his seal for any discrepancies after school, although that last one involved a whole slew of other things including somehow informing him of his less than amicable tenant and possibly his parentage. There were multiple other, smaller details involved as well, things that would have to be developed on the fly in response to the reactions of others throughout the day. She even had a few contingencies in place, so that nothing would deter her from getting this mystery solved before it could turn into an even bigger problem.

And then Ino came out of nowhere and grabbed her before she could get to physical training, after blitzing through twenty push-ups faster than she should've been able to with her nine year old muscles. Her plans imploded, and she would later be ashamed to say that they had nothing to do with the unexpectedness and everything to do with the fact that it was _Ino_.

Ino didn't give Sakura any time to react. "Come on!" She hissed out, taking the pink-haired girl by the hand and full-out running in the opposite direction of the rest of their class; she was going after Tayuya and Hinata, who _should_ be headed to the girl's bathroom on the second floor. "If you don't hurry up we'll never find out what's going on with Naruto!"

At that very moment, the green eyed girl would've followed Ino anywhere, even before the blonde mentioned that it had something to do with Naruto. _Ino's holding my hand. Ino's _talking_ to me. Ino. Holding my hand. And talking to me!_ That was the gist of her thoughts even as she scurried up the stairs behind her once-friend.

_**Yes, she's talking to you. Now get over it; she's talking to you about **_**Naruto**_**!**_ Thankfully, her inner self was there to set the broken record in her thoughts back on track. _**Hurry up before we miss whatever she's taking us to!**_

_Right. Naruto. Ino's taking me to... Talk about Naruto? Wait, how does she know anything about Naruto?_ If she wasn't confused before, Sakura certainly was now. _What...?_

There was no time for contemplation as they skidded to an eerily-silent halt outside the door of the second floor girl's bathroom. Ino spun in place and held a finger up to Sakura's mouth, silently telling her not to ask any questions. She only waited for a dazed nod from the girl before turning back to the door and tugging them both closer.

_She touched my mouth! Ino touched my mouth! She touched me! She's talking to me and she touched me!_ Sakura's thoughts were on the fritz. _Ino's talking to me and she touched me! Ino knows I exist!_

_**Will you please **_**shut up and pay attention!**

_Right. Right. Ino... Naruto. Second floor. Girl's bathroom... Second floor girl's bathroom?_

That was when the smell hit.

* * *

Tayuya had been thinking very carefully when she made her decision to corner Hinata and find out exactly what was going on. She knew that she had to grab Hinata sometime during classes, because the Hyuuga heir was always being watched over otherwise. And she knew that if she wanted more than a few minutes with Hinata before someone came looking, she had to go to the least likely place for anything to happen, because people would definitely be searching as soon as they realized the girl was missing.

She'd chosen the second floor girl's bathroom, also known among the Academy students as the Den of Olfactory Evil. Nobody came to this bathroom, or the corridor, or even this corner of the second floor, simply because the stench was so horrible. It only _looked_ pristine; in truth, it was the lasting legacy of a prank gone very, very bad more than five graduating classes ago. Her eyes were watering and Hinata looked ready to break out in full tears.

Although that might be because Tayuya had assaulted her and now had her pressed against the wall with an arm twisted around her back.

"Alright princess, let's skip the pleasantries and cut straight to the bullshit. What the fuck did you do to Blondie during that spar, who told you to do it, and why?" The pink haired girl demanded, narrowing her brown eyes on the back of Hinata's head even as she used her free hand to hold her shirt in front of her nose. "Tell me or I'll break your wrist."

Despite her threat, Tayuya didn't actually expect Hinata to break as easily as she did. In fact, the Hyuuga heir didn't put up a fight at all; she just bowed her head and recited easily nine straight minutes of mind boggling information that went way beyond just tampering with Naruto's abilities, and ended with a teary-eyed plea for Tayuya to please report it to someone so that Naruto could get help.

"...Are you fucking serious?" Tayuya was officially stumped as she stared at the girl, who she had released after only a minute of talking. _What the _fuck_ did I just get into?_

"H-hai," Hinata sniffled. "I-I was g-going to tell M-mizuki-sensei today..." She just knew that Naruto was soon going to find out that she had betrayed him. Everybody knew Tayuya had some crazy obsession with Sakura; she would take the information to the other pink-haired girl just to try and trade it for what she wanted to know. And Sakura would _never_ keep something like this from Naruto! "You h-have to take it to H-hokage-sama! Please!" All of a sudden, she dropped to her knees and bowed with her forehead to the floor. "Please don't let Naruto-kun keep suffering!"

"Naruto? You're worried about _Naruto_? I'm more concerned the fucking treason charges that are gonna get your faggot father's head chopped off! Damn straight I'm taking it to your retard leader! How the fuck am I supposed to live in Konoha if I keep finding out shit like this?"

"You can't go to Hokage-sama with this." The new voice had both of them whipping their heads towards the door, where they found an unusually stern faced Sakura looking at them, with a sickly pale Ino clinging to one of her hands and the back of her shirt. "There are things you don't know about going on here."

"Where the fuck did you two come from?" Tayuya demanded, taken aback.

And it was at that moment that Naruto appeared. "Sakura-chan? Tsunade-shishou is looking for you, you know; we have an exam today." The whiskered blonde, accompanied by a sick-looking Sasuke, was holding his nose as he poked his head into the girl's bathroom. He blinked when he found three other girls there. "Eh? What are all of you doing in here?"

Tayuya stared at the two boys in disbelief. "What the fuck ever happened to _privacy_?"

There was a brief silence as all of them looked at each other, right before several voices rose up at once in question, creating a cacophony of noise.

Alone in the background, Ino looked nauseous as she clutched at the back of Sakura's shirt. _Oh man, this is definitely not what I wanted to happen! This is just..._

"Everybody _shut up_ now." Sakura looked like she was ready to blow a gasket. "Nobody says anything about this for the rest of the day. Tayuya, keep your mouth shut. Hinata, don't go to anyone. All of us are going to meet up at Naruto's house and figure out what's going on _later_, after school, you understand?" Her voice was like steel as she looked from one person to another. "Until then, pretend like this never happened." With that, she turned on her heel and marched away, trailed slowly by each of the confused children.

_...A clusterfuck,_ Ino concluded after a moment. Her eyes fell downward, to where Sakura was still holding tight to her hand.

She was the only one who could tell that the pink haired girl was shaking the whole time.

_What did I just get into...?_

* * *

A/N: Ugh. Are we somewhat satisfied?

It's two in the morning. Please point out any spelling/grammar mistakes or missing words, I know they're in there somewhere.


	25. P e r f o r m a n c e s

Hm. Been a while, hasn't it? I'd give you an excuse, but I was mostly just being lazy and enjoying the weather. Anyways... Here we go. Hope everyone's been as curious as I've been trying to make them.

Well anyways, this is almost like two or three chapters in one, to make up for it all. So... Egregiously long chapter is a go.

* * *

There was something wrong with his eldest child and until that moment, Hiashi hadn't noticed at all. He wondered, for a moment, what that said about his suitability as a parent. And then he discarded the mere notion. He'd been successfully leading an entire clan for close to a decade, so there was no way that his child-rearing skills could be less than adequate. _Certainly, Hanabi has been everything I envisioned_. And Hinata had never quite met his expectations, even as a mere baby, when he first realized that he would be raising a little girl instead of the male heir he'd hoped for after his twin brother bore a healthy son.

But having his expectations dashed in the matter of her gender was a far different matter from seeing the young girl's entire mannerisms and even schedule change before his eyes. In between the paperwork that besieged any diligent leader and the daily issues he had to face in caring for an entire compound full of people, Hiashi had come to expect certain interruptions and moments of relaxation.

Hinata was not a fighter, nor was she a leader of any sort, but she was very diligent in her self-appointed duties. Every day, she came into her father's office and silently served him tea before reporting on her progress and daily activities. At another point, she would gently lead her younger sibling in before her so that the smaller girl could see her father at some point and enjoy his presence. Her soft-spoken inquiries about his needs came at regular intervals while she was within the compound, and when the time came for her evening training, she was dressed and warmed up with Hanabi before he ever appeared at the compound's dojo. When dinner was ready, she always sat with the family, serving others before herself, while always keeping an eye out for her father's needs.

It hadn't taken much for Hiashi to notice his heir's attempts at gaining his approval, which had come more and more steadily once Hanabi began to walk, talk, and show that she was much different than her older sister. And he had never approved. His oldest daughter made no demands or even eye contact, she hesitated in combat, and treated everyone around her with deference, as if she were apart of the Branch house rather than the noble Main house. How could he approve of her shows of subservience and gentility in the place of the more ruthless qualities he wished for her to have? How was he to acknowledge her efforts when he knew that across the compound, his nephew was rising further and further beyond his peers and showing that perhaps the wrong twin had been chosen to lead?

He couldn't. And so, he took another route: he ignored her. It was probably not the best tactic, especially after the passing of her mother, but it was all he could come up with, especially considering the many other demands for his attention. And this was perhaps the reason that he didn't notice it as Hinata slowly stopped her visits to his office with deliveries of tea and snacks, or when Hanabi began delivering herself to see her father, and Hinata began training on her own instead of waiting for her father to set aside his work and see to her. In truth, were it not for the strangely jarring moment when he found his dinner plate being refilled by Hanabi's tiny, too-clumsy hands instead of Hinata's sure movements, he likely wouldn't have noticed at all.

"Hanabi."

The six year old girl paused, her chopsticks still floating above her plate, and turned wide, pale colored eyes onto her father. "Yes, father?"

"Where is your older sister?" Hiashi asked, resting his own eating utensils across the bowl which had previously been filled with rice.

Hanabi set down her hand, and replied while blinking, "Onee-sama took her meal in the kitchens earlier. She wanted more time to prepare for a stealth exam she will take tomorrow."

"I see." And yet, he seemed to recall a notice from his nephew's Academy class that suspended all exams in the summer time, barring those of the junior medic corps. At the same time, as he watched his daughter return to eating, Hiashi couldn't wrap his mind around the thought of Hinata telling any kind of falsehood. And strangely, he couldn't recall receiving an exam grade from his daughter since months ago.

The issue remained in his mind, twisting and turning yet leading nowhere, even as he sent Hanabi to prepare for bed and began preparing himself for the meeting of the elders he was obligated to attend. _Perhaps Hanabi misheard, and it was a medic exam, rather than a stealth exam._ The thought was vaguely comforting, but it didn't explain Hinata's disappearance from her daily routines in the past week or so, and was probably untrue. He didn't particularly want to consider that though.

Without conscious thought, Hiashi allowed his feet to take him to his eldest daughter's room. She would be either studying or resting at this time of evening, and in either case, there was no real reason for him to disturb her. But he would check on her, still, and make sure that she hadn't come down with an illness of some sort. It would make sense for her to send Hanabi off and take her meal alone in that case...

_...But why would she say she had an exam...?_

His feet stopped before her room, and his movements were silent as he slid open the shoji door. His intention was just to glance in and ascertain her state; instead, he was confronted with a dark room and an empty but ruffled bed spread, as well as an opened window. Before he was even cognizant of the thought, his Byakugan was activated, and he found himself searching the compound for the small form. He saw Hanabi laying on her bed spread and Neji cleaning his room, more children of the branch house in various states, a short elder...

_There_. Hinata was moving, on the opposite side of the wing where her bedroom was. Only she wasn't headed in the direction of any baths or restrooms, nor was she returning to her bedroom. Even as he watched, unconsciously pacing closer and closer in an attempt to keep her within his sights, his oldest child was slipping out of the Main compound, beyond the Branch compound, and over the gates that surrounded the entire estate.

His mind was full of questions... Questions, anger, confusion, a fading worry, and a growing sense of disparity, as if some important puzzle piece in the scenery of his world had just shifted out of place. _Hinata avoiding me. Hinata lying. Hinata sneaking outside, past the guards._ Nothing fit and nothing made any sense. His daughter was diligent, honest to a fault, and painfully unskilled compared to her peers within the clan. She didn't lie and she didn't sneak past trained guards with activated Byakugan, somehow managing not to be caught. Something was wrong. Something was _very_ wrong.

"You seem troubled, Hyuuga-san."

Hiashi's fingertips, glowing with chakra, passed harmlessly through the chest of the orange masked man he had absolutely no desire to encounter at the moment. His mind couldn't contemplate the impossibility of what had just occurred, as he was stuck on the thought of his young heir roaming Konoha all alone in the middle of the night and his pressing need to have her returned to him, preferably unharmed and with answers.

"Young Hinata's meanderings will need to wait, I'm afraid." Madara gripped the Hyuuga's shoulder and kept the man from moving as he transported the to a secure room. "You missed a very important meeting Hyuuga-san. My endeavors to incite the Uchiha into the beginnings of a rebellion have finally borne fruit, and you must act in good time to take advantage of this opportunity. Fugaku is distracted now because of his son's newest accomplishment and the opportunity it presents, but he surely won't remain so blinded to your machinations for long..."

There wasn't much choice to be had in the matter. His daughter was nothing compared to the whole clan in the grand scheme of things, and there was virtually no escape from the whims of the masked man. But even as he stood still and stoic, going along with the powerful enigma before him, Hiashi found himself practically vibrating with tension on the inside. _Hinata... What are you doing? Where are you right now?_

* * *

Jinya was tense. It was eleven in the evening on a Friday, and as one of the rare times lately when his team was off the active chuunin roster, he should've been relaxing. But his hackles had been raised since his return early yesterday morning, when he could swear he'd seen his father exiting the window of his mother's room. It wasn't the first time he'd had one of these glimpses, even though they made no sense, because Haruno Daisuke was long dead and had certainly never shown any of the shinobi skills that Jinya's delusions had. It wasn't a good sign for his mental health, but like any smart shinobi, he kept his mouth completely shut about them. It was for the same reason that he'd cautioned Sakura to keep 'inner Sakura' to herself early on; nobody wanted to end up in the _loving_ care of the deprogrammers.

However, if delusions weren't enough, the white haired teen also found himself worried over his younger sister once more. His mother seemed to miss Sakura's drifting eyes and clenching fingers, but they were like giant red flags to him, pointing out that something was wrong... And that she wasn't planning to say anything to him about it. He'd briefly assumed that it had to do with her upcoming birthday on Saturday, although he couldn't imagine what might be wrong about that, up until he went past her room at one point yesterday and saw her scouring a series of advanced scrolls in a way too harried for studying. He couldn't see what the subject of the scrolls was, but he did know that they weren't from the Konoha's library; they seemed far too worn and in some cases ornate for that. Which begged the question of where she'd gotten them... And more importantly, what they were for.

He'd never found anything conclusive on why her locket had been found in those tunnels, and as much as Jin trusted in his sister, his logic and his instincts still told him that something wasn't right. And since no shinobi made it past genin if they got in the habit of ignoring their instincts, he'd found himself keeping a closer and closer eye on her, if such was even possible.

Recently, his ability to keep an eye on her was severely compromised by not only his team missions and his apparent ability to see his dead father in the most random places ever, but also whatever mess Itachi had somehow gotten into within the last two years. No amount of prying could make his black haired friend open up, not that Jin had really expected him to; if anyone could be called 'the perfect shinobi,' it would be Itachi. Honestly, it was only from knowing him so long and having confronted him a year and a half ago about what he was hiding that Jin could even tell how stressed and worried his friend was lately.

The parts he knew about were daunting, to say the least. There had been some unrest in the clan due to problems between Itachi's father, the Head, and his mother, the next highest in rank due to who she was descended from. Itachi, as their heir, had been stuck between the two of them, unable to choose sides and unable to appease his other clan members about how the situation would resolve itself. Jinya knew that Itachi didn't like politics and hated being the Uchiha heir, but it had become especially apparent in those months before Mikoto decided to defer to Fugaku once again and lay the conflict in the clan to rest.

He had also found out that Itachi was always so hard to find because he was a member of ANBU. For some reason, the times when Jinya's team and Itachi were out of the village tended to coincide fairly regularly, and Jinya had gotten into the habit of trying to sense out his friend's chakra whenever he arrived back to the village after those two months where Itachi had been avoiding him. It was during one of these early morning returns that he came across Itachi in full ANBU attire, rather than the usual vest-less black attire his friend wore.

It turned out that Itachi was actually leaving for a mission that time, rather than returning, and Jinya had unintentionally caught him atop one of the different ANBU Headquarters in Konoha. Because Itachi had no particular desire to either behead him or seal away his ability to speak, he had decided to make Jinya into his "touchstone," which was apparently a person outside of ANBU that knew the operative's identity and could be used as a contact in case of emergencies or other sensitive situations. Somehow, he hadn't been surprised that Itachi declined to use one before that point.

On the heels of that revelation came another bout of unrest in the clan, this time due to something that Itachi refused to explain. Still, everyone chuunin and above in the village had noticed the rumors about the Uchiha clan becoming more and more aggressive, and the way that both the Military Police and the official Uchiha shinobi seemed to be retreating from the whole of Konoha. And Itachi himself had started crashing in Jinya's room rather than going home after missions, which was a sign of trouble all on it's own.

And of course, he couldn't forget Itachi's mysterious "sensei" that he could get absolutely no details on. Whatever the man had Itachi learning was certainly effective, since the boy had become even harder to keep up with in a spar than before, if possible. At the same time, every return Itachi made from those sessions made his eyes a little darker and slumped his shoulders a little lower. Whatever Itachi was promising in return for those lessons was just too much.

Jinya couldn't understand why anyone, let alone what seemed to be _everyone_, could even consider using a thirteen year old boy for all the different things that they did. Why did the Uchiha set all their hopes on Itachi? He was skilled, certainly, but anyone that worked as hard as he did, as consistently as he did, could be the same. What was this "sensei" demanding of his friend for the lessons he was getting, and why had he not offered his services to someone older and more able to deal? How could anyone in ANBU believe it was a good idea to send a teen on all the assassinations and dirty missions that Itachi took on?

And now this...

"Turn it down."

Sitting next to him on the floor, Itachi started some at the break in the silence, then turned his head to the side and looked at Jin through the darkness. There wasn't enough moonlight in the room for him to see his friend's expression clearly, but the faint outline of his rigid posture conveyed how bothered Jin felt. _I understand, but..._ "I cannot do that."

Catlike green eyes opened slowly and seemed to glow in the darkness as they met his gaze. "Yes, you can. Turn it down."

"No..." Slowly, Itachi shook his head. "It is not an option for me. Chichiue knows, already, that I was offered this promotion. And through him, the clan council. I have been told to accept the position as ANBU Captain and this apprenticeship under Inu-san. I cannot turn it down." He was unsurprised to hear himself sighing at the end of the sentence.

The white haired boy focused his eyes on the darkened wall of his bedroom and forced his mind to work hard. _I can't let this happen_. There were just some things he couldn't stand by, and having his friend condemn himself to years more in ANBU and an even harder schedule was one of them. _I'm starting to hate his damn sense of loyalty!_ But what could he do? What could possibly convince Itachi to let down not only his clan, but his shinobi superior? What was enough...? _Something... Someone..._ The answer hit him.

Sasuke, perhaps?

Jinya's mouth was moving before he had even finished working out how to use Sasuke to make Itachi see reason. "You don't care for anything but appeasing your superiors, do you?" He questioned lowly. It was untrue and it tasted like ash in his mouth, but it needed to be said for this to work.

He could tell that Itachi was startled at the sudden change in tone and conversation. Startled, but not wary. _Good_.

"What are you talking about?" Itachi questioned sharply in reply.

"You should know, Itachi. It's all you ever think about, isn't it?" Jinya chuckled as he curled his knees up under his chin, and the sound was appropriately bitter as it left his mouth. "Everything about you... 'Chichiue says this,' or 'the council says that,' or even 'my sensei insists,' blah, blah, blah." In the corner of his eye, he could just see his friend's posture becoming more tense and rigid as he continued to speak, mixing distorted truths and pure lies together. _That's right, get riled up, Itachi._ "I can't remember the last time you even thought for yourself. Do they decide which lunches and dinner you have, too? It wouldn't surprise me, the way you've been acting. If it's not from one of them, it doesn't matter, I guess. Or at least it certainly doesn't _look_ like anything else matters to you."

Itachi had turned to him fully now, with one knee resting on the ground. The Uchiha heir found himself clutching one hand to his torso; the strange rolling in his stomach and the ache that he was beginning to feel was unfamiliar to him. He was confused and he was... _Hurt_, to be honest. Jinya was literally the last person he would ever expect such negativity from. Especially since it was obvious, at least to him, that his friend was one of those things that really did matter. "Why are you...? No. Of course other things matter. I have never _not_ thought for myself." It wasn't until he spoke that he realized he was actually angry, too. It was a strange realization.

"Really, Itachi? Then where were you the last time Sasuke-kun was sick and needed to be brought home from school?" Jin could tell that the words had made Itachi pause. "Oh... That's right. Your sensei insisted you meet him on that day, and so instead of being home on your day off, your were out in the wilderness learning a new technique. And you returned nearly a day late, _after_ Sasuke-kun emptied his stomach twice and I had to run and pick up medicine for Mikoto-san." The entire spiel was a lie of course, but Itachi hadn't been there to know that for a fact.

"When was this? When was he sick?" Itachi demanded, his concerns changed all of a sudden.

But Jin ignored him; he needed him far more shaken than he already was. "And of course you don't remember the tournament he won. The council asked you to turn down leave and take on more missions, so you could qualify for the higher ranking ones. So you weren't there when he came to me with Sakura-chan and Naruto-kun, and asked for help in training with his ninjato. He said that you had promised to start him with a wooden blade... But you never got around to it, did you?"

This one was true. Itachi _did_ recall his promise to upgrade Sasuke from a bokken to a wooden ninjato, but he'd never gotten the chance to do so as his mission load increased and his free time was taken up on learning from Madara. He hadn't even known that Sasuke had participated in a tournament at the Academy, let alone won it.

"And I guess you haven't even noticed how Mikoto-san has been feeling lately," the white haired boy continued blithely. "She's been a bit sick, did you know? She comes to my mother's shop for her medicinal tea sometimes. They were talking about how she's been missing you, too. I guess you're just not home enough to talk to her some or just sit with her for a while. It's not as if it _matters_ that you're her firstborn son and she raised you, trained you, and has to sit back and watch you become more and more lost to the world every time you actualy go home."

Itachi winced, and Jinya continued as if he hadn't noticed. "But I shouldn't have expected that, because you haven't noticed how much Sasuke-kun has missed you either, so why would you pay attention to Mikoto-san? It's really been bothering Sakura-chan, because she didn't know what to do when he cried once after you left on a mission..." He trailed off this time, not because of the words, but because he could swear he'd just heard movement coming from Sakura's room. But now wasn't the time to stop. _Too close to breakthrough. Gotta lay it on thicker._ "At least I manage to tell Sakura-chan goodbye before I go, most times. I would hate for her to think that I found missions more important than my only baby sister."

"Be silent. No mission is more important to me than my brother!" Itachi bit out, his displeasure actually showing in his facial expression for once. "I've just been..."

"...Overwhelmed?" Jinya interrupted slyly. "But that can't be it. After all, the council wants you to pile even more duties onto yourself and you have no intentions of turning it down. If you were overwhelmed, that wouldn't even be a consideration. After all, every shinobi knows the importance of balancing their time and delegating duties." He allowed his chin to fall to his knees, and closed his eyes. "Still, Sasuke-kun knows that I'll help him if he needs it. Perhaps he's a lower priority for you because you know it too. And he is a smart little guy. He understands that you need to listen to your father, and the council, and your _sensei_, so you can't make any time for him..."

Jinya completely deserved the harsh push that knocked him onto his back. He supposed it was a good thing Itachi was his friend; anyone else would've been stabbed or ignored before they even got through the first set of sentences. As he lay there, watching as Itachi began to harshly scrub his face with his hands, he just hoped that his ploy had worked. Itachi's priorities were all wrong at the moment, and he was honestly shouldering too much on his own. Maybe this would knock a little common sense into the other teen.

After a long silence between the two of them, Itachi spoke up, hesitantly, "He cried?"

"He cried." And Sasuke _had_ cried after Itachi left on a mission once. But it had nothing to do with Itachi leaving. Not that Jinya had any intention of letting his friend know that.

"And... Okaa-san has been sick?"

With a mild stomach virus that had gone away after three days? "Indeed." But the way Mikoto always looked to be worrying about one issue or another could be a sickness all of it's own, so he felt justified in saying this.

"...And I haven't noticed at all..." Itachi sounded sick himself.

"You haven't been here to notice." And maybe, just maybe, part of Jin's reasoning for this had less to do with taking the burden off his friend's shoulders and more to do with giving him back the unexpectedly close friendship he'd somehow forged with the Uchiha scion. But it wasn't a crime to be selfish.

They lapsed back into silence.

The white haired boy didn't get up when his friend abruptly turned and exited through the window. If things went his way, the talking he'd just done would spurn Itachi into exactly what he hoped it would; turning down the promotion and taking some notice of the world outside his duties again. On the flip side, Itachi also had an irritating tendency to brood over things and blame himself for a very long time. If he got depressed and decided to punish himself for his own misdeeds by taking the position... Well, Jinya might be forced to go to Mikoto-san with everything. And that wouldn't be pretty for anyone involved.

Still, he would do it if it became necessary. It couldn't possibly be healthy, the way his friend was completely focused on 'Itachi, the Konoha shinobi,' and 'Itachi, the Uchiha heir.' Surely there had to be some middle ground, some down time, for him to just be 'Itachi, the person'...

Before he could be left to musing and possibly falling asleep right there on his floor, Jinya remembered that he'd heard sounds from his sister's room, despite the late hour. With a sigh and a grunt from the effort, he rolled over and pushed himself to his feet, then exited his room to go and check on her.

He really wasn't expecting to find her room empty.

* * *

Ino thought it might be a little wrong to be as excited as she was at the moment, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She was awake hours after her bedtime, at someone else's house with a bunch of her classmates and no adults anywhere, all so that they could learn some interesting secrets and do something that was sounding more and more like the kind of missions that her daddy went on! It was like being at a sleepover, which she'd never done, with friends, which she'd never had, and on a mission, which was what she'd always wanted.

She could've kept the happy little delusion if it weren't for certain factors. Like if Naruto weren't so apprehensive with all the people in his apartment, or Sakura so completely stiff and nervous looking with what she needed to say. Or if Tayuya wasn't so angry at having to keep things to herself and meet here, and Hinata wasn't so jumpy because she'd broken the rules and snuck out of her house. Or even if Sasuke didn't look like he'd vibrate right out of his skin from finally being let in on something.

_This is such a weird group,_ Ino thought after a moment, looking at all the people crammed into Naruto's bedroom together, since the living room apparently had too many windows. _I hope we don't get into trouble for this..._ Besides her, only Sasuke had actually asked for permission to stay over with a friend. She supposed that Tayuya counted, too, but her 'asking' went more along the lines of ordering Shikamaru to tell his parents where she'd gone and following Naruto home. Sakura and Hinata had only just shown up.

As if spurred on by Ino's thought, Naruto spoke up. "So, uh, why are we all at my house?" He couldn't help but glance at Tayuya, who had been with him for hours by then. Who would've thought a girl besides Sakura could be so very _intimidating_? Maybe it was because of the pink hair...

"You have to tell him, Hinata," Sakura spoke up immediately, locking her eyes on the Hyuuga heir, who already looked pale and fairly sick at the mere thought.

"Tell me what?" Naruto voiced, furrowing his brows in confusion.

Hinata cringed at the blonde's question and backed further into the corner of his room that she'd chosen as her spot. "I... I... I _betrayed_ you, Naruto-kun!" She squeaked out, tears welling up her eyes. "I'm so sorry! I... I just wanted Ch-chichiue to... To love me..." She ended in a mumble.

"What?" Both Naruto and Sasuke echoed. They were the only two who didn't already know what was going on.

Sakura kept her eyes on Naruto as Hinata slowly stumbled through her explanation of what she'd done and why. He was taking it far more calmly than she would've expected; she could see that he was hurt from the way he clenched his fists, and more than a little bit angry, but the emotions didn't seem to be directed at Hinata. It wouldn't surprise her if he sympathized with her desire to be acknowledged by her father, the way he wanted the people of the village to acknowledge him as something other than a pariah.

_And isn't this going to be a doozy,_ she thought. _There's no way I can get through this without telling at least him about the Kyuubi, is there?_ At least for the method she thought she needed to remove the new one, there wasn't. And this was not how Sakura had planned to tell Naruto about what resided within him. _But maybe it's better this way. If nothing else, I can warn him earlier about the effects of using the Kyuubi's chakra..._

_**You should ease him into it,**_ Inner Sakura spoke up, appearing behind Tayuya. The older-looking version of her seemed to glance around, before continuing, _**Do a test run. Show them what to expect if there is no seal. Make it less surprising when it appears that there is one on him; you already know this, intellectually, but what are the chances that this would've been real to you if you really were nine years old?**_

_True..._ Sakura sighed without sound as Naruto punched Sasuke in the arm before the younger boy could say something hurtful to Hinata. _Now that he knows, we should get moving. It's a bad idea to have everyone here anyways._

"Ino, can you take Hinata to wash her face? The bathroom's right down the hall." It was completely unsurprising that the Hyuuga heiress had burst into tears at the end of her story, especially since Naruto had taken it upon himself to try and reassure her that he didn't blame her.

As the two exited, Sakura looked at those who remained in the room. Sasuke was pouting at Naruto, the blonde was ignoring him and looking at her for more information, and Tayuya was sitting silent on the end of the futon, giving her a glare that could've melted glaciers from sheer intensity. It was obvious that the older pink haired girl was still waiting for the explanations that she'd come for, which had nothing to do with Hinata repeating her own story and everything to do with the many things that Sakura was hiding.

So she kept her mint-colored gaze pointedly _away_ from the older girl as she addressed Naruto, "Do you remember that scroll I gave you after we all got detention yesterday?"

"A scroll...?" The whiskered blonde tilted his head to the side and frowned. _I think I remember... But..._ Now that he knew about the seal that was apparently on him, things were making more sense, as well as becoming scarier. How long would he have gone on without noticing anything wrong? What else had he forgotten? Was he ever going to _remember_ those things that he'd lost in the past few weeks?

Naruto didn't notice the growing concern of the people around him as his face went blank and he brought a hand up to his head, feeling the beginnings of a headache forming. Was every headache a sign of some knowledge being lost? What was he forgetting now? Or was it just because he was asking too many questions and wondering about too many things? Why would Hinata's father even _want_ a seal like this on him? _What did I do to deserve this?_

"Naruto!"

The cerulean eyed boy blinked as the shout echoed in his head, and his surroundings came back into focus around him. He hadn't even noticed it when he drifted away from the world. "I... Gomen ne, Sakura-chan, Sasuke." He glanced at Tayuya, and wasn't surprised to find that the only sign of her being bothered that he could see was a new frown on her face and her clenching fists. "Um... What were you asking again?" He couldn't remember.

"...That's scary," Sasuke spoke up after a moment of silence in the room. But the boy looked far more upset than afraid by far.

Sakura sighed, again, and walked over to the desk underneath his window. There was only one scroll there, looking far too ornate to be amongst the books and papers, which she grabbed and handed to her blonde companion. "The seal inside this scroll, Naruto. Do you..." At the last moment, she changed her mind. Instead of asking a question, she demanded in low tones, "Take it into the hallway and draw it on the paper I put out there, with the ink I had you make. Make _sure_ you do it right. If it backfires, everybody in the apartment could be hurt, and we'll all be in trouble if Hatake-san is in his apartment downstairs and comes to check. And remember, we all need to go home sometime tonight. Don't rush it, but if you go too slowly, we're going to have a problem."

It was the determination that entered his eyes and the straightening of his back that she'd wanted to see. _Good._ Asking him questions only seemed to send him into a daze and a circle of forgetfulness, but she couldn't forget that every battle Naruto went into, physical or not, seemed to gain his entire focus without fail. It made sense when she considered the way his skill level always seemed to jump whenever something or someone was in danger; if she presented the task to him that way, he would understand it differently, and the seal affecting him would be pushed to the back-burner.

"Hai, Sakura-chan!"

Naruto left the room with Sasuke on his heels, leaving Sakura alone in the room with Tayuya. Her inner self faded away, back to being a quiet presence in the back of her mind, and the green eyed girl finally faced her pink-haired counterpart straight on. "...So. Tayuya-san."

"No!" The older girl growled audibly before standing up from her spot and walking over to stand directly in front of Sakura. "We're not playing this fucking game. You managed to distract everyone else with Blondie's problem and Mouse Girl's little sob story, but that bullshit won't cut it for me. The things you do, the things you know... You shouldn't even be in the Academy, Haruno. If you don't give me an explanation, I'm going to have to find one myself. Even if it means going to that old geezer the way I should've yesterday, when I found all this out."

Sakura eyed the taller girl briefly, then allowed her expression to fall completely flat and dead. She'd had an entire day and some hours to think of how she'd get away with this, now she just had to play it out. And she'd become a very, _very_ good actor. "Academy Student Tayuya, ward of Nara Shikaku and Nara Yoshino, class ranking four of twelve, genjutsu specialist, ijutsu and taijutsu adept... Why do you assume that Hokage-sama is unaware of my position?"

The older girl took a step back, and her eyes narrowed some. "You're saying this is a mission?"

She tilted her head to the side, using the same eerie stare that Sai had once used on everyone he met. "Eight clan heirs. One clan ward, chosen specifically for her intelligence and abilities prior to formal learning. Uzumaki Naruto, former ward of Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai. Touken Saichi, my..." She timed the delay purposefully. "_Cousin_," Sakura finished. "And the first class leading into a new system for the entire Academy. The beta version, you might say... Did you really believe that Hokage-sama would leave it be? Please. Don't think so lowly of the longest-lived Kage in all the elemental nations."

Tayuya frowned; she hadn't failed to notice that Sakura had neither confirmed nor denied on her question. Her words were designed to make Tayuya choose her own conclusions. "If this is really a secret mission, then why are you telling me all of this?" She demanded. "Why does Blondie know what's going on whenever you do it?"

"Are you so arrogant to think that your observations and opinions have gone unnoticed in the time since this class began at the Academy? Do you believe Hokage-sama is so foolish as to leave the observation and handling of an entire class of sensitive persons to a lone operative? And..." Here, she leaned in, and allowed a less than pleasant smile to stretch across her face. "What makes you think you still have the _ability_ to speak of this to anyone else? Questions lead to more questions, Tayuya-san. It would never have been allowed to go on. Maybe you should be glad you haven't had an 'accident' yet."

And then Sakura pasted a normal, charming smile on her face, the same one she'd learned from her older brother quite some time ago. "I think I hear Ino and Hinata coming out. I'm going to go explain to them about what Naruto is doing right now. Take your time... But not too much time, Tayuya-san." Then she walked out of the room.

Tayuya stared after her, aghast. _I could've had an 'accident'...?_ And then she found herself pausing. _No. No, something's wrong here... That was..._ She began to frown unconsciously. _That was too... Scripted. Too fake. And... She didn't state one single thing. They were all questions. Everything was there to make me assume something else. No..._ Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the empty doorway. _She was definitely lying to me. But which parts were lies, and which were truth?_

After a moment, she sighed, forced the frown from her face, and followed Sakura's path out of the door while seething inwardly. _Let her think she's got me fooled. I swear, I'm going to figure out the damn truth about you, Haruno!_

* * *

Whatever Naruto was doing in the hallway looked awfully complicated. Sasuke had been with him since he first opened that scroll from Sakura and began drawing the design inside, yet watching it take shape nearly five times larger was baffling. Every strange curve and symbol and spiral had to be drawn a certain way, at a certain time, and only _before_ or _after_ another one. It was like a giant, complex puzzle with no instructions... Even though Naruto seemed to know exactly how it should be done.

The boy couldn't help but wonder if he would _ever_ have gotten a chance to see Naruto doing this if he hadn't followed the blonde to find Sakura yesterday. But maybe it was a moot point, because now he had, and he knew things.

Sasuke had known exactly what he was doing the day before. As soon as it came out that Sakura had run off, along with a few other girls, he had immediately gone over to Naruto, who he just knew would follow after their other friend. And he hadn't been disappointed. It took Naruto less than two minutes to pinpoint where they were, somehow, and when he went, the younger boy followed right behind him. Even despite the horrible smell.

They'd managed to walk in at the end of _something_, something very strange, but that was still enough to have them included. Or rather, to have _him_ included. This time, Sasuke would be apart of whatever Naruto and Sakura were always getting up to without him. It was the first time he couldn't be led away or distracted by something during those crucial moments, where they started to whisper together and then slipped off with nobody else being any wiser on it. Although Sakura _had_ tried to convince him that it was nothing he needed to know, it hadn't worked. He was too set on this.

It always upset him when he got left behind by them, just because he was younger or smaller or whatever they used to justify it. Maybe he _was_ younger or smaller, but he was still just as smart as either one of them. He did just as well, if not better, in his classes, and they all learned things outside of the Academy that had to balance out somehow. He _could_ keep up with them, if they would just give him the chance!

This was something different from the way things were with his brother. Itachi was the best, and Sasuke always wanted to impress him, because if he could impress the best, he could impress anyone. And in any case, he loved having his aniki's approval. But when it came to Sakura and Naruto, it was different. They were the same age as him and learning a lot of the same things, even if whatever they picked up outside of the Academy was different. And instead of just watching his progress, they had always been there to help him, whether it was with training in ninjutsu or writing Academy reports. They weren't on some high up pedestal like his big brother, they were at his level... And for some reason, they couldn't see it.

He just wanted them to know that he could do the things that they did, too. He could go with them on their adventures and keep their secrets and help them with their problems. And if it wasn't them, then who would it be? They were his _best friends_, more than Sai or Shino or anyone else in the class. They had to let him in, because he didn't want anybody else.

_And now they have_, Sasuke thought, hiding a smile as Naruto flopped back onto his bottom and surveyed the giant array of inks and patterns spread over his hallway floor. _After this, I won't be left out again!_

"Would you like to try it first, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura's voice came from behind him.

The Uchiha startled slightly, then turned confused obsidian orbs on his friend. "Um... Try it? What do you mean by that?"

"It isn't d-dangerous?" Hinata spoke up meekly from where she stood on the other side of the hallway, huddled behind Ino's calm form. "To p-play with s-seals?"

Sakura smiled at them. "It usually is, but this one doesn't really do anything to you. The point of this is to make any seals on a person or object appear in full view. Lots of times, seals are hidden with flesh-colored ink or compressed into smaller forms after activation, instead of their full appearance. Since the seal on Naruto can't be seen, we have to use this first. Then I can copy it down and we can figure out how to remove it, or at least disable it."

"So... Why would we be trying it?" Ino asked, furrowing her brows as she looked down at it. She didn't really feel like getting ink on herself just to try something out. Although she _was_ curious...

"Well, don't you wanna see?" Sakura asked. "And it's like a test. If you have no seal on you, the seal will be unresponsive after you activate it. If there is a seal, it should turn red, and then search your body to make it visible. We're just making sure that everything is in order, although since Naruto has been studying these for a while and he only had to copy this one down instead of build it, there shouldn't be any problem."

"Che. I'll do it. Hurry the fuck up and show me how to sit." Tayuya leveled a glare on Sakura even as she stepped forward, the clearest sign that she could give to say that she _wasn't_intimidated by the younger girl all of a sudden and refused to become so.

Sakura just smiled at her, then carefully settled her into position on the seal and showed none of the awkwardness she was feeling just from being in her current situation. _How do I get into these messes?_ She wondered. _A bunch of Academy students sneaking out of their houses to play with seals in the middle of the night, two of them clan heirs, one of them an over-curious conspiracy theorist... _She sighed. "Alright, everybody step back." She glanced towards Naruto, who still looked just as ready and determined as he had since she gave him the task of drawing the seal. "Ready, Naruto."

He nodded, then got into position and pressed both of his hands to the edge of the seal where he sat. For the first few seconds, nothing happened, which was exactly what both Sakura and Naruto had expected since Tayuya had no seal...

...And then the array began to glow red.

* * *

"1-taichou, an issue."

The masked man looked away from the training session he was overseeing and tilted his head at the shorter agent. "Report."

"Hai. At approximately 0100 hours, the resonance seal room at the Oto border outpost recorded the activation of one Deep Ground order array. Location proposed to be Konoha, South-East district. No other arrays were activated within a five minute period and no orders were carried out according to the relay seals in the room. Unit Four, Sub-Unit A is on standby awaiting orders."

"Has Danzo-sama been appraised of the situation?"

"Orders were received rerouting all situations less than code orange to 1-taichou's attention until such time that Danzo-sama rescinds them."

"Then order your unit to stand down and remain watching for any further activations or for the orders to be carried out. If no movement appears within five hours time, return to regular duties and objective preparations. Send Unit Four, Sub-Unit B on a sweep for chakra disruptors within a one mile radius of the outpost. That is the most likely cause of this."

"Hai, 1-taichou."

"Dismissed."

* * *

The class had always wondered what it was, exactly, that made Tayuya so special that she'd be with them. Sai's unnaturally strong water affinity had explained his presence, as had Naruto's skills and his overwhelmingly large chakra stores, but why had the pink haired girl been placed in a home with the Nara clan and onto their class roster?

She'd never answered any questions they posed, and for the most part, nobody asked Tayuya questions. She was older, meaner, and far less forgiving of idiots than most people that her classmates were used to. She had an almost visible aura of _get away from me_ surrounding her most times, and it had become apparent that Sai and Yakumo were really the only ones who could break into her bubble without permission, for whatever reason that she seemed to like the two of them. Most people had just decided that they'd rather never know than upset her too much by asking.

After tonight, however, none of the children in Naruto's apartment would ever question it.

One minute, they were watching the seal activate unexpectedly. In the next, Tayuya went glassy-eyed, stood, and reached into the waistband of her pants to pull out what appeared to be a flute. Then she raised it to her lips, and the world became something different altogether.

"Tayuya, what are you _doing_?" Sasuke exclaimed. The genjutsu had rolled over him like water, and been shaken off just as fast. His cousin Shisui thought it was hilarious to put him under genjutsu and leave him to wander around, confused, so he had learned how to throw them off ages ago. "Stop it!"

Tayuya's dead eyes landed on him, and the blankness of her face was more frightening than any scowl or frown she'd ever sent at the class. Then, with almost robotic efficiency, her leg snapped up, heading towards him with a speed and force she'd never displayed during class spars. He barely managed to duck away from the blow, and as he did so, he knocked Naruto away from the seal array he'd been powering even after Tayuya had moved.

The disruption to his chakra flow woke Naruto up, and he blinked rapidly as he looked around, only to find Sasuke decimating his hallway in a taijutsu match with Tayuya and everyone else standing still with strange, glazed expressions on their faces. "Sasuke, what the..." He trailed off as a slow, haunting melody took over his senses. "What..." He drifted off.

Sasuke glanced at his friend, then avoided another powerful kick from Tayuya. His head slammed into a shelf in Naruto's living room on the way back up, and a set of books went tumbling to the ground loudly. He froze. _What if Naruto's neighbor hears it and comes upstairs? _They couldn't really afford that. Especially with the giant sealing array in the middle of the hallway.

Tayuya lunged at him once again, and this time, instead of dodging, he countered. It was surprisingly easy to wrestle her to the floor, considering how harshly she'd been going against him before, but it took far more effort to pry her fingers from the deathgrip they had on her flute. And where had she even been hiding the flute? She was wearing shorts. It made no sense at all.

"Sasuke?"

He tossed the flute away from himself as he continued fighting to hold the older girl in place, and looked up at the source of the voice, a confused looking Ino. "Can you please _help_ me instead of just standing there?"

"Oh! Um, okay."

With the blonde's help, they manage to lock down both Tayuya's arms and legs as the others were stirring from their daze. Naruto was the first one to come over, followed by a recovered Hinata and Sakura. All of them found themselves staring at the same thing; the darkened purple seal pulsing where it lay on Tayuya's right forearm. The brand certainly hadn't been there before.

"Then... Tayuya did have a seal on her, somehow. But why did it activate? This seal was only supposed to show any seals on someone and bring them out, not affect them." Sakura mumbled aloud to herself even as she and Naruto examined it.

The whiskered blonde furrowed his brows, then pointed at the upper end of the diamond-like seal shape, where a character that looked like a badly drawn kanji sat. "It was set to activate on the first direct contact. It didn't need to have the proper activation applied to activate." He made his funny squinty face, and leaned in closer over Tayuya. "It's a one-time use seal. After whatever order or purpose gets fulfilled, it breaks itself down and disappears like it was never there." Naruto frowned. "Usually the best way to deactivate them and remove them after they've awakened is to let the orders be fulfilled."

"We can't do that!" Sasuke exclaimed, sitting up some from his position holding down Tayuya's struggling legs. "The first thing she did was put everyone to sleep and then attack! What if she has assassination orders or something?"

"She doesn't," Naruto replied distractedly, frowning and rubbing at his head as he continued staring at the seal. "This..." He lightly traced another part of the seal with his fingertip. "It's a key of some sort. She's supposed to use this to activate something else. That's how they work when they're drawn like this. And..."

Watching as Naruto dissected the seal before her very eyes, Sakura couldn't help but be extremely impressed and a bit worried. _Unlike me, he really is just nine years old. And yet... He can do all of this, already. And once this seal is gone, everything I know about him will change even more. His growth was so stunted last time, but the way he's shining now... Even with everything I've done to better myself and all my extra years of experience, will I still be left behind again?_

_**Looks like you'll just have to try harder than ever to keep up, then.**_

She sighed under her breath as Naruto and Sasuke began hissing arguments on what to do between each other, with the occasional input from Ino. _Was letting up on that ever an option? Of course not..._

"A-ano... M-maybe, m-maybe we should follow her?" Hinata spoke up meekly, curling in on herself as everyone's attention suddenly turned to her. "We can s-see what the s-seal is s-supposed to d-do and... S-stop her right when it d-deactivates...?"

Sakura stood up from her kneeling position and frowned thoughtfully. "That is possible... The problem would be managing to stop her. She attacks when she thinks we're not all neutralized. We'd have to follow her from a distance. It would make stopping her at the last moment hard."

_Should I...?_ Ino wondered, looking at the silent people around her. _I could... I know I can..._ She lightly chewed her lower lip. _Maybe if I do this, Sakura will see that she really can trust me? And then she won't forget about me as soon as this is done!_ That decided it. "I can stop her," Ino stated, light blue eyes determined.

"Really? How?" Sasuke asked.

"It's a clan technique."

Blinking in surprise, Sakura focused on her former friend again. _The Shintenshin? But Ino didn't learn that until we were twelve!_ "What does it do?"

Ino tried not to react to having Sakura's direct attention for once. "It lets me take over someone else's body by leaving my own." The girl frowned. "But I only just learned it, so I go slowly when I use it. And I have to be in a direct line of sight, or else I get lost until my chakra runs out and takes me back to my body."

Surprising everyone yet again, Hinata spoke up, "I think... If I m-maybe close her tenketsu, th-then s-she will s-slow down, and even if Ino-san d-does m-miss, th-the s-seal won't have enough chakra t-to activate...?" Her whisper came out as a question, but even before she'd finished, Sakura already knew that they would be following this plan.

"Alright. Then we can do this."

Sasuke made a face. "So we just... Let her up? And let her leave after she hits us with the genjutsu or whatever again? ...Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Sakura frowned a bit, thinking. _There's too many of us anyways. I think..._ "Hinata, you're going to close her tenketsu now while she's still being held down, and then you're going to go home as quickly as you can." The girl opened her mouth to protest, but she held a hand up to silence her. "You have to, Hinata. This all should've been done already. But you've explained to Naruto and you've seen that we _can_ take care of this, even though there are some complications. He's forgiven you, and you've been absolved. We just need this from you, and then you can get back before somebody realizes that you're missing."

The pale-eyed girl frowned, but nodded. "Hai..."

"Don't worry," Naruto interceded with a smile that looked strange, considering that he was sitting on a struggling girl's back. "Tomorrow is Sakura-chan's birthday, and you're invited, right? We'll tell you how things went then."

This seemed to relax Hinata, and the Hyuuga heir smiled gently, nodding. "Hai."

"Alright. Now... Sasuke, since you can throw off the genjutsu, we're going to need you to wake us up after Tayuya makes it out. But once you wake us up, you're going to stay here with Naruto." Once again, she allayed protests with a raised hand. "It's the middle of the night and the patrols are already crazy in the last year. It's a miracle that Hinata knows how to slip past them. We're going to have to watch Tayuya and ourselves, and the more of us there are the more likely it is that we'll be a liability. Naruto can do that already, but he still has to go prepare the seal for a second use when we get back. And someone has to set up the room for Tayuya, she's probably going to be exhausted. We need you to stay here."

Sasuke pouted and Naruto frowned, but in the end, they gave in. "Hai, Sakura-chan."

Ino thought she might spontaneously combust when Sakura turned to her with a smile. "You're with me, Ino," the other girl said. "After Hinata does her thing, you have to within a foot of me at all times when we're following Tayuya. And if you need anything at all to prepare yourself for stopping Tayuya, don't hesitate to tell me, alright? We're partners in this."

"Hai!" And if she was a little too eager in her salute to the other girl, well, nobody said anything.

_Partners!_ Ino thought, hiding her excited smile. _Yesterday I was nothing, but now... I'm a partner. I'm Sakura's partner. I definitely won't mess this up!_

* * *

He could still remember his early childhood clearly, and the times after he became an older brother were particularly vivid in his mind. His mother's eyes were like jewels and his father's eyes were gray, so it was easy for Jinya to cling to those first few times he had stared at his new little sister and saw that _her_ eyes were just like staring into his own in the mirror. And when she began walking and talking, times only became more interesting. He still remembered those strange animal outfits his mother always dressed her in; Sakura would follow him everywhere he went, outside or in the house, and depending on the day of the week, it would look like he was being chased by a very slow, pink-haired and unsteady duck or cow or dog or sheep only two feet high.

She started off like a very funny toy, even though she only seemed to babble nonsense and make weird faces. Then she was like a pet, that just happened to be a tiny human. And then, somewhere along the way, it started to mean something to him that she was his sister and he was a big brother and that meant that he was also a teacher, protector, and friend. Jin didn't think that he'd ever cherished anything more in his life.

He still cherished her. But it seemed like his emotions were getting in the way of his outlook on things... Things that were bigger and more important than his own peace and happiness. The white haired boy wondered if it might get him into serious trouble one day, or even killed. It certainly seemed like it.

"...started in the civilian district, near my home. That's why I came out to check. But I ran into Patrol Alpha when I was searching, and they dismissed my concerns over the flare as something they'd checked already." Jinya smiled sheepishly, because he was good at smiling and it made people believe him when he was twisting his words with lies. "I felt that I had to check it myself though. It was on the side of the house near my imouto's window. I wasn't comfortable leaving it alone."

The jounin eyed him, but only in a cursory manner, before shrugging and raising his fist in an 'all-okay' symbol to the rest of the patrol behind him, which quickly dispersed. "You shouldn't worry, kid. The patrols know what they're doing around here. It was probably one of the returning nin stumbling over himself." The bearded man scratched his chin briefly, then looked away, yawning. "Better get back to sleep while you have the time. Even chuunin have it rough these days."

"Hai, Sarutobi-san." Jinya bowed respectfully.

"None of that bowing crap," Asuma grumbled. Then he sighed. "Back to patrols..." And with that, the man was off like a shot, following the path across the rooftops that his fellows had taken.

The green eyed teen watched the man until he could see him dropping into the Northern district of the village, and his genial expression dropped completely in favor of pure weariness. He dropped silently into the alleyway behind the building where he'd stopped the patrol. "I know you're here. Step out." He was displeased, and it could be heard in the tones of his voice.

Sakura came out first from behind the dumpster, with her guilt plastered all over her faces and imprinting itself in the dirty hands she was twisting over one another. She was followed by a slightly taller blonde girl, who he vaguely recognized from her Academy classes.

He paused a moment, and didn't see the second pink-haired little girl that he'd been expecting. A frown wanted to impose itself on his face, but Jin held it back. "Sakura. Explain yourself."

The pink-haired girl almost flinched from his short tone, which she'd never had directed her before in either life. "I... Niisan..." _What can I tell him?_ Sakura didn't know, because she wasn't sure how much he'd seen and he wasn't letting out any clues. _He was here long enough to turn the patrols away from us... He knows we used our chakra for something..._

Before she could think something up however, Ino stepped forward, looking only slightly less guilty than her companion did. "It was my fault Sakura came out here."

Jinya raised an eyebrow, and Sakura knew that wasn't a good sign at all when he was already upset. But she didn't get the chance to say anything. "You explain, then."

"Um..." Ino turned a bright red color and looked down at her feet, suddenly embarrassed. "My name is Yamanaka Ino. I was practicing one of my clan's jutsu in class... It lets you listen to surface thoughts. And when I was trying it on Sakura, it wasn't working. And I couldn't figure it out. So I kept trying, and I found that it wasn't working because Sakura has more than one voice in her head. And I tried to get her to tell me why, but she wouldn't say anything. So I told her that if she didn't come out and tell me, I was going to tell Iruka-sensei, and Iruka-sensei would take her out of the program, or send her to..." Her voice dropped into a whisper. "The _deprogrammers_."

It took everything Sakura had to keep her reactions from showing on her face. _Ino's been practicing jutsu on our class? And... Ino knows about my other self!_ That was bad. That was very, very bad. And... It was also very plausible. But as she glanced at Jinya's face, she knew already that it wasn't plausible enough. _Oh no, oh no, oh no..._

Jin looked at Ino intensely, until the girl began fidgeting in place, her eyes on the ground. And then he stared at Sakura, who met his eyes but only felt sicker and sicker with each passing moment. "...There is a third girl behind the dumpster," he stated flatly. "Deprogrammers only deal in shinobi ranked chuunin and above. And... Sakura had all of her classes with Tsunade-sama today. You would not have waited an entire day to make a meeting time." He paused. "Yamanaka-san, you are excused from this conversation. Step back and tend to the other girl. Sakura, explain what is going on."

Her hands wrung in the bottom of her shirt. She shifted her weight from one foot to another, restlessly, and tried to think of something to say that would turn her older brother away from whatever he'd seen. Yet Sakura knew, just _knew_, that this was where her unnatural luck had come to a pause. Benten-sama couldn't deal with this, especially since her brother, who was closest to her, was bound to finally confront her on all the things he'd found that were wrong in the past few years. And she couldn't get out of it.

So she kept her mouth shut.

Behind them, Jinya could hear it as the other pink haired girl came to (_"Ow! Fuck! What the fuck? Where the fuck am I? What the fuck did we do? Fucking fuck! My fucking head!" "Tayuya, please, please just shut up! This is the worst time possible!"_). He kept his eyes on Sakura, and after two minutes of silence, it became clear that his younger sister wasn't going to say anything to him. He hadn't really expected that she would, but it still hurt.

"Sakura. I saw that... Tayuya-san was under some kind of influence when you and your friend stopped her from activating this." His eyes shifted to the nearly-invisible lines of sealing on the alley wall next to him, carved around the frame of some shop's back entrance. Then he looked back at her. "You know more about whatever this is, or whatever was influencing Tayuya-san, than you should. But I can at least see that you are not an agressor in this case. And for this, I will leave you out of the report when I take the matter of this strange seal to either ANBU or Hokage-sama."

Sakura opened her mouth to speak, finally, but he let out an aggravated sigh, stopping her. "This is the last time, Sakura. Until you are ready to part with the truth, I can't keep protecting you when you make mistakes. I love you, imouto, but I swore to uphold the values and rules of a Konoha shinobi when I took this hitai-ate. I can't keep slipping like this. The next time... Either you'll tell me what I need to know and let me help you deal with it, or you'll tell Hokage-sama what he needs to know and allow him to make the decisions. In any case, this is the end of this game." He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "Please don't make me regret my foolishness."

And then he turned his back to her and walked back in the direction of their home. He didn't push for more answers, didn't wait for a reply... Didn't tell her to go home...

For once, she completely understood why the tears were clogging her throat.

"...Sakura...?" Ino tried and failed to keep the distress from her face when Sakura turned around and there was water streaming quickly down the girl's face. "I... Are you... We have to get back," she finished lamely.

The nine year old girl wiped uselessly at her face as her shoulders began to shake harder, and wordlessly gestured for Ino and the silent Tayuya to begin moving. She followed right after them, holding back her sobs through pure willpower alone.

_I can't... I can't... It can't just be about me..._

_But it hurts..._

* * *

If the meeting she has just attended had taken place only a week earlier, Mikoto wouldn't have noticed even half the little things she'd been picking up and picking _apart_ throughout the entire session.

Ever since she had relinquished control of the Uchiha Council meetings to Fugaku again, the understated fierceness she typically relied on to get her way had faded, bringing her back to the position of 'supporting wife' that she'd been used to before the recent upheavals in her life. She'd fallen into the familiar pattern of sitting behind and to the side of her husband, keeping her head down, and casting her votes in whichever way he signaled for her to through minute gestures and shifting in his posture. In these times, she memorized the hardwood floors they knelt upon, engraving the patterns on her mind and calculating, over and over, exact widths and lengths that she could see.

But the meeting at Lilac-Breathing-Earth had stayed with her, remaining at the forefront of her mind even a week afterward. Suddenly, the whispers of the wives in the back of the room were more important than ever. Uncle Densuke's recent fidgeting and the angry pauses he sometimes made as one issue after another came up meant something more. The way that two of her aunts and one of her much older cousins had started grouping together and casting the same votes during each meeting signified more than new friendships among old blood.

And Fugaku's newfound objectives in pushing the Uchiha shinobi harder and the shopkeepers for more and the merchants for longer treks had whole new meanings. Because as they'd laid down each piece of evidence against the Hyuuga and the unknown, outsider conspirators in the matters discussed at Lilac-Breathing-Earth, Mikoto had begun to see disquieting parallels. Uchiha shinobi traveling in groups instead of alone... Civilian friendships being discouraged and even cut off... More and more missives being sent from lands far beyond Fire Country's borders...

She was beginning to think that the Hyuuga had spread rumors and unknowingly incited an actual coup by doing so. And that was absolutely nothing that she wanted to hear at the moment, nor was it good for the village or the Uchiha in any way. _Really, this is not what anyone needs... And my position is growing more difficult by the hour..._

"Okaa-san... You seem troubled."

The voice had her blinking. Mikoto turned where she sat on the back porch, and found herself staring up at her eldest son, who she hadn't seen in quite some time. _I didn't sense him_, she thought with surprise and pride all rolled into one; he'd improved since she saw him last. "Itachi-kun. Welcome home."

"Un."

She stood, dustead herself off, and turned around to face him. Her obsidian eyes softened automatically as she took in his form. Her child stood to her chin now, which put him two inches higher than he'd been several months ago. Itachi was just as skinny as he'd always been, but his arms suddenly seemed a bit too long for his body, and his frame had become lanky. His hair had grown longer, and there was finally a point to the ponytail he kept. But his face was still a mirror of hers, from his aristocratic nose and thin lips to the heavy eyelashes that made so many women jealous.

But there was darkness in his eyes and a slump to his shoulders that hadn't been there before, even as stressed as he'd become recently. "Maybe we are both troubled, musuko. Perhaps we will sit down and talk about it?" She held out a hand to him.

Itachi hesitated, something she hadn't seen in quite some time, and then he surprised her. Instead of taking her hand, he walked forward and wrapped his arms around her middle, burying his face against her as he hadn't since he was still closer to the ground than her belly button. And when her arms automatically rose to wrap around him in return, he didn't pull away.

Mikoto felt very, very warm as she buried her face in the top of her son's hair. "Oh, my son..." The smile that stretched her face was almost painful in it's intensity. When was the last time she'd been so purely _happy_? "Okaa-san still loves you as much as ever, Itachi-kun."

His arms squeezed her tighter in response. No words came, but that was okay.

For the first time, Mikoto began to feel like she might just be able to deal with everything going on around her.

* * *

**A/N:** Since people are probably wondering... **Chapter 17** is where you'll find the lone sentence where I hid Tayuya's surprise for this chapter. To quote, **"****All thirty-four of the other children are situated and have received their marks. Fuu has implanted all orders successfully****." **I'm honestly surprised nobody seemed to pick up on that, seeing as every other detail gets wrung out like fifty different ways in the reviews. Ah well.

But anyways, there you have it. Please review. As always, point out any grammar/spelling errors and missing words or other mistakes; I'm really not seeing them, what with my habit of typing right before falling asleep at 5AM.

**This chapter was a fuckin' beast.**

Also, **Here's A Cookie Dare**: Go back and read all Sakura and the other children's lines in this story with the high-pitched, squeaky voices that they would actually have at their ages. Laugh hysterically. Report to me how it felt to fall off your chair from clutching your sides too hard.


	26. T h e C a l m

I feel that this is a good time to say that they _probably _won't be on teams and going on official missions and such **until the sequel**. Which is closer than you might think.

...On second thought, don't get your panties in a bunch. You should know how slowly I update by now.

* * *

He'd been looking forward to his cousin's birthday party for weeks. It was marked on his calendar: _May 28th, Sakura's Birthday Party!_ Sai found the thought of a birthday party exciting. His father usually gave him presents and money before sending him outside to play, and Sakura's last few birthdays had always been on rainy or busy days when nothing was happening. Nobody else he knew seemed to do much on their birthdays besides spend time with their families.

Sai realized that he probably wasn't the only one who had really, _really_ wanted for May 28th to finally come. He didn't know how many of the students in their class had been invited, but it made no sense to him at all that somebody might _not_ be excited about a birthday party. There would be food, and games, and of course everybody could give their gifts to Sakura, and he thought it felt very good to have someone like a gift you picked out or made. Yakumo had helped Sai with his gift for Sakura, so he just _knew_ that she would love it. But maybe she would love all the gifts anyways. They were all for her, after all.

So he couldn't understand why Sakura didn't seem all that excited. It was her birthday. Shouldn't she be smiling?

If it were _his_ birthday and _his_ party, he would be smiling. He'd never seen streamers as colorful as the ones decorating the back yard, and every time his eyes caught sight of the piñata, he almost shook in anticipation of breaking it to pieces. Not only was it _colorful_, but it had _candy_ inside, and he could grab as much of it as he wanted without otousan or Nadeshiko-obaasan taking it away!

Maybe Sakura just hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before? She _did_ seem tired, Sai noticed. And he knew she liked to stay awake when Jinya wasn't home so she could see him when he came back. But Jinya wasn't at the birthday party, so maybe whatever mission he had was going on longer than it should be. Jinya was a good ninja though, so there probably wasn't anything wrong. He didn't know why Sakura was so worried.

But then, his cousin never had made much sense to him. Maybe it was just something he didn't understand yet. There were a lot of things that Sai didn't understand yet.

Making up his mind to stop thinking about it, Sai turned his attention to other matters, such as the two blonde heads bent together in a corner nearby. Naruto had explained to him about good tricks and bad tricks a few days ago, and he thought that he had an idea for a really _good_ one, even better than the hugs he gave the whiskered boy all the time.

Dropping low to the ground, the black haired boy smiled and began the arduous task of trying to sneak up on a plotting Naruto. If he was lucky, the boy would be distracted by Ino's chatter...

* * *

Hanabi stared back and forth across the breakfast table with large eyes and an odd, shaky feeling of disquiet in the pit of her stomach. On one side of her, her father was sitting straight-backed and rigid, as he had been for the past three hours. His hands were both at the edge of the table, clenched so tightly that she could see little specks of blood in the creases of his palms where his fingers curled in, and his forehead was set in the worst frown she'd ever seen him wear. She'd never seen him so silent when he was angry; he tended to snarl.

But then, she'd never seen him so angry before either.

On her other side, opposite their father, Hinata sat in her usual perfectly demure pose, her hands resting flat on her lap and her head bowed so low that her hair shaded her eyes and her chin touched her chest. She hadn't moved for ages, not since she first sat down in _seiza_ at the table. Hanabi couldn't do that; sitting seiza hurt after just few minutes, and always made her legs itchy and tingly and prickly when she stood back up, which was worse.

So she couldn't understand how her neesan looked so relaxed. _Especially_ with their father glaring at her so harshly. After all, Hinata had awakened her Byakugan years ago; even though it wasn't activated, she could almost surely still see something of their father's contorted face. Hanabi would be _terrified_ if she were on the receiving end of that glare. Anyone would, really... Except, apparently, her gentle and quiet older sister. It was strange.

Hanabi's head snapped up when she heard footsteps, but she was the only one who moved. At that same moment, the shoji door slid open silently and an anxious-looking servant placed entered with a large, steaming tray of food. Shakily, and avoiding any sort of eye contact with the direction where Hiashi sat, she switched out the fresh tray of lunch for the cold, untouched breakfast from hours ago. Then, without so much as a bow or stammer, she scurried from the room and shut the door behind her.

Her stomach rumbled.

Blushing, Hanabi looked down, but she didn't miss it when Hinata finally looked up, her face surprisingly gentle despite the situation. Then, she almost bit through her lip when her older sister reached out, unhesitatingly, for the serving utensils.

The entire standoff that Hanabi was still stuck watching had begun when, hours ago, Hinata had tried to serve an already-angry Hiashi breakfast. His hand had shot out like lightning and smacked hers away from his bowl, spilling rice all over the wooden tray. And then both of them had sat back and begun their gargoyle impressions. If Hinata tried to serve him all over again...

The soft clinking of chopsticks on delicate china drew her attention to the table itself, where Hanabi was more than delighted to find a bowl of fully prepped donburi waiting for her. Her stomach rumbled again, but this time she didn't even consider embarrassment. _Food!_

All manners and etiquette forgotten, the girl dug in, only sparing the briefest thought to her older sister as the girl began serving herself, ignoring their father completely. Maybe he would serve himself for once. Hinata surely didn't look like she was going to do it.

* * *

Sarutobi had a headache. Not twelve hours ago, he'd been awakened in the middle of the night by Patrol Omega, a group of jounin led by his son Asuma, in the company of chuunin Haruno Jinya, who he was beginning to think he should watch more closely for potential. The reason he was drawn from bed had to do with the first of several foreign sealing arrays to be found inscribed on the surface of various Konoha buildings.

These arrays weren't unfamiliar. In fact, Operation Rabbit Hole had searched out three or four in the times before the Deep Ground Incident, although no purposes had been divined from them. Standard procedure was simply to remove them as quickly and effectively as possible before they could be activated for any reason. Now, however, there were black ops teams scouting them out, copying them down and then destroying them as they went. Since the one that the Haruno boy had pointed out was half activated from some outside source, there was no telling what would happen if the others began activating.

As it happened, however, a pattern had emerged as the locations of the seals were mapped out. Each and every one of them that had been found so far was put in a specific place; the home of one of the original thirty four children taken during the Deep Ground incident. On further inspection of the homes, it was found that a second seal had already been activated in each; they had deduced that this was the method used to silently take the children without a single trace. It was baffling, because to date, there was no knowledge of a seal that could do such a thing.

And the knowledge would have to remain locked until Jiraiya came back to Konoha and inspected the arrays, because nobody in Konoha had an in-depth enough understanding of them. The most they could guess was that the seals had a resonance to some point outside of the village. However, something very interesting _had_ been found out for sure: the sealing style used was one that originated in Suna. And more specifically, at the hand of the legend, Akasuna no Sasori.

_How coincidental that this should be revealed to me just after the Analysis squad decoded the section of the scroll with all of Sasori's information in it._ His thoughts referred, of course, to the frustratingly coded information that had been received before the Lilac-Breathing-Earth conclave. The amount of time and the number of minds that had to come together in order to break down each separate section was ridiculous, and so was the amount of work he had to set Inoichi and Aoba whenever it was time to erase the information from the different teams' minds.

But the information... It was true gold. Even if some of it didn't quite make sense. After all, why include Hoshigaki Kisame of Mizugakure or Deidara of Iwagakure alongside several nuke-nin, the likes of Orochimaru and Kakuzu? How could they possibly be involved with one another? Perhaps it would all make sense in time. Until then, however, the questions would linger.

A series of knocks against the solid wood of his office door added an unpleasant rhythm to the throbbing headache he had, and Sarutobi was quick to call for whoever was on the other side to enter.

In walked chuunin cell 19, also known as Team Shiranui. It was composed of Koizumi Tatsuki, Aburame Suzumushi, Haruno Jinya, and their instructor Shiranui Genma. Even as he watched them move into a standard formation, faces calm and shoulders straight, the Sandaime couldn't help but get an underlying sense of tension from the three students, particularly the white haired boy who looked very much like his father. Briefly, he imagined that the boy was still bothered by his early morning discovery, but the thought was discarded, simply based on the tension from his teammates as well. In any case, it wasn't his business at the moment.

"Hokage-sama," Genma greeted from around the senbon he chewed. His hand raised in an almost-salute before dropping to his side once again as his three students bowed and stood in quick order.

"Cell 19." Sarutobi nodded his head to them, then steepled his hands in front of his face as he eyed the team again. He wondered, only briefly, if he should select a different team for the mission... And then, at some nudge from his inner self, he decided against it. "I find myself in need of your particular talents for a mission above your usual rank. The details can only be disclosed if and when each of you has agreed to take on the assignment. Are there any objections to this?"

The bandana wearing jounin raised a single eyebrow, but nothing about his typical dull expression changed. "Not from this corner, sir."

In front of him, however, the three chuunin were casting silent conversation between one another with shifting glances, tugged flak jackets and openly visible frowns. It was impossible to truly understand, in the way that it was hard to interpret the secret languages that twins and triplets seemed to speak to each other, but Sarutobi gathered that the three held some reservations about the only male's participation from the way they teamed up on him.

But his face abruptly went blank, and he stared hard at each of them for a few seconds, and that somehow seemed to calm the conflict. It was Suzumushi, the Aburame heiress, that spoke up in cool tones: "We will accept, Hokage-sama."

He glanced at each of them, but their resolves had hardened in their eyes. It almost made him smile. "Very well. As you well know, your team has been trained to specialize in tracking and infiltration." The third aspect, 'assassination,' went unsaid. "But it has become apparent, through your track record, that you are capable of packing a certain amount of destructive force as well when parameters allow for such. It is for this reason that you, among several others of varying ranks, have been chosen for an upcoming A-Rank Search and Destroy operation..."

* * *

A chill and a shudder traveled the course of her spine, and they had nothing to do with the howl and the piercing shriek that rang through the air as Sai finally managed to sneak up on Naruto and Ino for his surprise water ninjutsu. Sakura went instantly from dazed and unhappy to alert and uneasy, but it went unnoticed as everyone's attention was drawn to the growing spectacle in the corner of her back yard. Of it's own volition, her hand rose to rest on her stomach, where a familiar sensation of dread was coiling unto itself.

The pink haired girl found herself assessing people and possible exit points even as she moved further and further away from the center of the gathering, trying to figure out where her sudden sense of horror had come from. She hoped it was nowhere nearby. She couldn't imagine an attack like the one she'd participated in the _last_ time she got a gut feeling this strong ending up quite as well as the one at her family's reunion had. This wasn't a house full of trained shinobi. It was a back yard full of children and gossiping mothers.

Suddenly, the streamers were liabilities. They could be set on fire so easily. The tables and chairs were obstacles set between her and the safe exits her insides were clamoring for her to move her friends towards, and they seemed larger than life all of a sudden. Every civilian and inactive shinobi hear to watch their children at her birthday celebration was a liability. The trees. The mountain of presents. The small box of sharp tacks from set up earlier. The cake. The umbrella over the food table-

"Sakura-chan?"

A hand landed on her arm and it was like having a bucket of ice water poured over her head. Sakura glanced to her left with widened eyes, only to find Sasuke staring at her with no small amount of concern hidden in the furrow of his brows. His expression only twisted more when she schooled her face into a façade of calm once again. For a moment, she had the fleeting thought that he could sense exactly what she sensed, but it was discarded just as soon as it came.

"...Are you okay?" Sasuke asked cautiously. He was more than familiar with Sakura's rapid changes in moods, and more specifically, her hair trigger temper. It wasn't often turned on him, but even so, he had no desire to chance it. An anxious Sakura was a dangerous one.

With barely a thought, the green eyed girl pasted on a small, if somewhat shaky smile and nodded. "Don't worry about it. What's up?" As she asked, both of them took two large steps closer to the fencing of the back yard. Shortly afterward, they felt a breeze go by as Naruto and Ino passed in a soaking wet tag team chase, destination 'Sai'.

Sasuke lowered his shoulders and sent brief glances in either direction around him. His blank expression gave her a startling flashback to the teen that used to be Team 7's unofficial leader. "Naruto fixed that thing from yesterday," he spoke in the lowest pitch his childish voice could reach. At her once-again widened eyes, he continued, "He gave me some weird paper. It made a grey-looking copy of the one on his neck. But he couldn't figure out much of what was there before we fell asleep." Then, he held both hands out and presented her with a folded square of what she recognized to be chakra-treated paper. "This copy is for you."

Sakura was quick to accept it, before stuffing it somewhere that she knew it wouldn't somehow make it's way out from: between her skin of her lower back and the elastic of her underwear. The paper dug at her and she was beyond sensitive to the chakra held within it, but it was nothing that she couldn't deal with. Instead, the pinkette focused more intently on Sasuke, after glancing around to make sure that everyone else was still distracted by the spectacle that Sai, Naruto and Ino had created. "So, this was the only seal?"

The Uchiha nodded, frowning a bit. "Why would there be another one?"

Part of her mind focused immediately onto the conundrum it had been presented, drawing away from the ever-niggling unease she felt; why had Naruto's main seal not shown up when this one did? But on the outside, Sakura just shook her head. "There's no way to know. I was just concerned that Hinata's father might not have been the only one with the idea..."

The obsidian eyed boy frowned deeper, some of his old upset forcing its' way to the surface. He _still_ couldn't believe that someone would do that to Naruto. What was wrong with adults? "Well, he was, so that's that." A shriek sounded, and he looked with Sakura to the opposite side of the yard, where Sai had finally been captured after a sour-looking Tayuya, who claimed to have a harsh migraine, tripped him up to stop the action.

"Maa, let's calm down now, ne? Don't you all want to Sakura-san open her presents?" It was Kakashi, who had escorted Naruto that day, speaking above the noise. The man was scratching lazily at his masked cheek as cheers went up and a rush towards the presents (and Sakura) began. "Eh, that's not my idea of calm..."

Now that the attention was on the two of them, both children resumed their previous expressions, while Sakura took it further and finally put her head into the game, smiling and deciding to be excited about her birthday while it lasted, even if her older brother wasn't there.

If her eyes remained guarded and searching during the rest of the party, nobody seemed to notice.

* * *

When Itachi finally located the one he'd been searching for since noon, he was relieved. But the relief wasn't enough to keep him from punching his friend in the arm. Hard.

"Ow! What the hell, Itachi?" Jin hissed out, rubbing at his arm that he could already feel bruising.

"You lied to me," the Uchiha heir replied in a dull tone that couldn't his amusement at Jinya's suffering. "Even if it was for a... _Good cause_, or something to that effect."

The white haired boy glared at the teen opposite him. "I didn't _lie. _I just selectively omitted certain details of my observations." Or at least, that was how he was going to justify it. And even if it was lying, who cared? He was a shinobi. Lying for the sake of the mission was just what they _did_.

After staring at his friend's expression for a moment, Itachi felt his face settling into a frown. "Something has upset you." And it was a kind of upset that he had never seen from Jinya, ever. His friend actually seemed _angry_ at something.

He didn't even bother trying to hide from the question. Jinya's glare melted into a plaintive frown as he looked at Itachi. Then he raised on of his hands up in an awkward looking fist with the thumb resting beneath his fingers, rather than tucked in, and began walking away from the grocery store he'd originally been heading to.

The Uchiha heir followed after the other teen with neither a sound nor an expression. The signal he'd just been shown was perhaps the simplest code in ANBU sign-language: 'touchstone.' It referred to an ANBU's singular outside confidant. It was rare for any ANBU to take on a touchstone and let someone know who they were behind the mask, but he'd chosen Jinya what felt like ages ago. However, this was the first time that his friend was the one wanting to relate classified information, rather than Itachi himself. He was understandably apprehensive.

After some fifteen minutes of traveling through Konoha's winding streets in silence, they ended up in the civilian district, where the familiar path ending at the Haruno household was taken. The two of them bypassed the loud gathering downstairs altogether, entering Jinya's room through the window. Belatedly, Itachi realized that Jinya was not, in fact, at his doted-upon younger sister's birthday party. And he couldn't think of anything stranger.

Jinya's room was completely silent once the window was closed behind them.

"When was Crow last on duty?" The green eyed boy asked as he folded in on himself atop his bed. He had a strange habit of referring to Itachi and 'Crow' as separate identities, which the Uchiha didn't truly mind. It helped him feel a bit less torn about his different duties when he thought of himself that way.

"Crow's two week break began three hours ago. Why?" Itachi asked, feeling an eyebrow raise of its' own volition.

His reply was another question. "Was Crow assigned to the search that went out early this morning?"

_How does he know about that?_ Curious. "Indeed."

"Before or after they began analyzing the half-activated one?"

Now, Itachi was becoming slightly irritated with all the questions. "Stop stalling and explain."

Jinya sighed loudly, buried his face in his knees, and began his muffled-sounding dialogue. But not before raising the sign for 'touchstone' again; here, it meant that whatever he was about to stay would have to stay absolutely _secret_.

And as he listened, Itachi completely understood why.

"...she didn't say a thing. Not a single word. And really... I don't think I would've believed her if she had spoken. I can't figure out where our bond disappeared to, and it's killing me." The minty green eyed teen huffed, thinking back to the alleyway scene that had kept him from sleeping properly. "I still couldn't bring her in though. I know it's against protocol, but... No matter how shaky things are, she's still my imouto. I keep hoping that she'll come to me... Maa. I did report the seal to Hokage-sama though. And it's after that one was found that all the available jounin and ANBU were drafted into sweeper teams for the search that went out."

"But?" Itachi prodded, shifting closer to the bed from his position on the floor. "You explained all of this for a reason."

For the third time, 'touchstone' was raised in the air. _Completely confidential_. Jinya raised his face from his knees, rubbed harshly at both cheeks, and then continued his talking. "My team was called in by Hokage-sama a little while ago. We're built for tracking, infiltration and assassination," he outlined bluntly. "But you've encountered me after a full spar with Tatsuki and Suzu. One of them controls insects that can plant exploding chakra and the other creates her own explosive tags by the bundle. We've become known for demolition tactics as well. Because of this, Hokage-sama asked for our cell to join an A-Rank Search and Destroy operation." Here, he subconsciously began to frown. "The target is the resonance point that the seal analysis team found. It's for the one Sakura stopped from activating, but they think all of the others will end up there as well. Hokage-sama decided it was too much of a liability."

"Wasn't your team already assigned to an escort operation beginning two days from now?" He replied, furrowing his brows.

"Funny thing about that... The locations are in, essentially, the same place. So we'll still be doing the original mission. It just won't begin until after we break off from the two jounin cells that we'll be back-up for. Assuming that everything doesn't go horribly wrong, of course." The weak joke at the end was accompanied by the first, slight smile Jinya had shown all evening.

But Itachi knew his friend too well by now to miss it's purpose; the other teen had tried to hide the shiver that went down his spine.

He couldn't help but recall the last time Jinya had gotten a bad feeling from something.

Maybe that was the cause of the shiver that suddenly went down his own spine.

* * *

"Do you think the two of us can really get it off?"

Sakura's small fists tightened on the sheet of paper she'd been trying, again, to dissect into pieces that could be broken properly. She focused her verdant glare on the soft white carpet that she and Naruto were seated on, instead of the questioning blonde, and tried to calm herself before she did something stupid. By now, she already knew that she didn't handle stress very well.

After a few moments of silence, she took in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then let out as many of her worries as she could on the exhale. Feeling that she could interact with the world outside herself again, the pinkette finally looked to Naruto, who had set down his own papers in favor of flopping to the ground and staring at the ceiling. "We _will_ remove it, Naruto," she stated with all the conviction in her body. "No matter how long it takes or how stressful it is, I _refuse_ to give up until you have control over everything that's yours!" She didn't mean to snap at the end, but she did. Her only solace was that he knew it wasn't directed at him. "...Sorry."

Naruto just grinned at her. "Who ever said anything about giving up, Sakura-chan?" He lightly patted one her hands, then folded both of his own under his head and began making that contorted, squinty expression that he always got when he thought deeply. She could tell by the way he was clenching at his fists that he was fighting off a headache already. It was another example of his inherent headstrong attitude when it came to dealing with problems.

"I just can't figure out why this one isn't the same as the way it started anymore," he was speaking when the guilt finally hit her.

Sakura had been avoiding the topic for what felt like forever. Years and events and semi-missions between the two of them all went by without her mentioning even once a large factor of the chaotic future she came from: the Kyuubi no Youko. The detection seal was supposed to be the push she finally needed to tell him about the burden he carried and what it meant, but that had come and gone with no consequence. She still didn't know why the seal hadn't shown up for the detection seal, when it appeared effortlessly every time Naruto focused enough chakra.

But still, it was becoming clearer that she would have to tell Naruto about the Kyuubi. If for nothing else than the sake of removing the seal Hinata had placed. Unlike Sakura, who genuinely wasn't that skilled with seals, Naruto was operating on several handicaps. Beyond actually being affected by the seal, he was actually almost nine years old, unlike her, and he was also operating without knowing _why_ the seal had changed, also unlike her.

Imparting knowledge was the only way she could help him; and it was becoming more and more necessary. He had an intrinsic sort of understanding for seals, even if it wasn't quite advanced yet, that she would never be able to replicate. But if she never told him about the Kyuubi and the seal that held it inside of him, then his understanding would all be for naught.

They couldn't afford that. Not even when there were years to go before the real conflicts began, at least in the original timeline.

_**Just do it.**_

_...Hai..._

"Naruto? I need to talk to you about something..."

* * *

A/N: **I used the (fake) word pinkette. Twice. **Also, I apparently have daddy issues and it comes out in my writing. Huh.

But anyways, here's the first of two updates that I've been struggling to move around and put together for a while. The second is still incomplete, but hey, that's better than 'not even an idea yet'. Hope you're enjoying this.


	27. C r e s c e n d o S t a r t

Alright, clusterfuck starts now.

* * *

With all the silent grace and uncaring air of a lounging feline, Mikoto rolled her jeweled wedding band around with the fingers of her left hand and pretended that she didn't notice the way that everyone in the council chamber had locked their eyes onto her. Aunts, uncles and cousins alike stared at her with looks that varied between shock, confusion, and in some cases, abject dislike. Fugaku just seemed stunned.

And she looked back at all of them, unmoved.

The silence in the chamber went on for moments more, before finally, she slipped her ring back onto it's proper finger and tilted her head to the side. "Must I repeat myself, honored council of the Uchiha Clan of Konohagakure? I would like to know when I, Uchiha Mikoto, first daughter of the twelfth son of our great scion, was going to be informed of the new direction that this most auspicious council has decided, without any input of mine, for the Clan to take."

Her long-winded spiel, which boiled down to a scolding and a declaration that those involved hadn't been as subtle as they thought, served its' purposes. More faces twisted in confusion, angry frowns became pronounced, and shock melted into flinching guilt and defensiveness. Her mind acted like a hi-tech camera in this instance; each set of expressions was catalogued and memorized, names were applied to every mental photo, and the first list of who would be causing her problems began to build itself.

She would deal with _them_ first.

"What is this 'new direction' that you're talking about?" A vocal uncle of hers spoke up, sitting stranger as his confusion gave way to a sense of anger. "I have been informed of no such thing, Mikoto-sama. Speaking for the fifth line, I, Uchiha Osamu, would demand to hear a full explanation of this upset you are implying."

"Don't be foolish, Osamu!" Another man snapped, standing from his seated position. "You have no right to demand such a thing, and more so, this is entirely baseless!" His pointing finger found a lock on Mikoto. "The woman has become restless after re-gifting the position as honored Council Leader to Fugaku-sama, and is looking to stir up trouble! We all knew it was due to happen soon!" As he spoke, more people began standing. His reaction was far too strong for her words; that was the first and worst mistake.

Before any other voices could rise to the fore, Fugaku stood, silencing them all. "You will all _sit_ and act like _adults_ instead of children." He glared over the room imperiously until everyone was seated and relatively calm, if not cowed by the fire hidden within his tone. "Osamu of the fifth line, you will wait for a vote before such a demand is made, no matter the case. And you, Inabi, would do well to respect 'that woman', who is of the fathering line if nothing else should matter to your pride." He sounded far angrier with Inabi than Osamu, and Mikoto knew why.

Scolding handed out, he turned around, where he found that his wife was already standing, serene in face. "And you, my wife... Where have these accusations come from? No such decisions have been made by the council, for if they had, all of us here would be apprised of them. Perhaps you have simply mistaken some matters?" As calm as his tone was, his eyes belied him. He wanted her to say that she mistaken and brush the entire thing under the rug, because to do anything else would begin the landslide.

But the landslide had started a long time ago, and nothing she did would stall it. So Mikoto didn't even try.

"No, Fugaku, I have not mistaken any matters. If anything, I believe that some of this honored council has been _mistaken_. Surely, I remember nothing of certain orders for my eldest son being given out, to take precedence of the leader of the village that has so _graciously_ housed and empowered we Uchiha... And most certainly I would know if this venerable council had decided that our _beloved_ Konoha was not treating us correctly and needed certain _discipline_," she finished, raising a brow.

"Mikoto, you know not what you speak of," Fugaku stressed, his lips going thin and his fists clenching as he stepped closer to her. "Now I am quite sure that you are _mistaken_, are you _not_?"

"No, Fugaku, I am quite sure." Her eyes moved from his, to his clenched fist which had risen halfway into the air, and then their large audience before she locked gazes with him again. "Perhaps you are the one mistaken? Certainly if you believe that raising your fist to me will bring me under your control any more than it has bridled our son." She smiled as he hurried to lower his fists to his side again. "But I believe this conflict between equals can be put to rest while heads cool, do you not? It seems time to dismiss us, revered Council Leader."

Then she turned her back from him and exited the chambers with the upper hand and a racing heart. For the moment, her mission was accomplished. She had violently stirred the pot and placed doubts. Now, she would sit back and watch them run around like headless chickens. After all, there was nothing an Uchiha dealt with so badly as facing problems up-front. And she was Uchiha enough to derail every attempt made to bring this to ground.

She was determined that this foolishness would be nipped in the bud, because Konoha couldn't afford it. And if the halting words that her son brought to her ears were correct, neither could the Uchiha. No matter what they might believe.

* * *

_The roof is a kinda uncomfortable place to lay down,_ Jinya mused as he stared at the sky from the top of his family's home. He'd been there for a few hours already, roughly ever since the party had winded down and his sister had come inside with Naruto, who had conned his way into stay over with judicious use of smiles and big blue eyes. The white haired teen wondered if he would regret teaching that to the blonde. Whatever Sakura was up to, Naruto was involved in as well, most certainly. The two of them were thick as thieves.

Hopefully not real, serious thieves.

_I'm not supposed to be thinking about this._ He clenched his eyes shut, wrinkled his nose, and then smoothed everything out with an imaginary hand molding his features into placidity again. Then he opened his eyes to look at the stars once more.

Only, there was an Uchiha leaning over him and looking bemused.

Jin yelped.

Itachi leaned back before he could be kicked in the face, and felt both his eyebrows raise as he took in Jin's sudden flush and his friend clutched at his chest, like his heart was racing. He wanted to be amused, but for the most part, it bothered him. "You are far too distracted to begin your mission, especially in enemy territory. Koizumi-san and Aburame-san seem to have been right about their worry for you when the mission was accepted." He sat down on the warm tiles where his friend had been laying moments before. And shifted. "Is it not uncomfortable to rest here...?"

The elder Haruno rolled his eyes and didn't answer the question as he sat up fully and leaned back against the large bag he'd packed, which was deceptively small for the amount of supplies he had within it, mostly sealed into scrolls. "The mission begins in two hours. It's a bit too late to back out, even if I actually planned to do so. I'm not going to be distracted in enemy territory, surrounded by jounin who will probably be evaluating my team as well. I might as well relax now."

But his friend wasn't relaxed, because when he relaxed, Jin smiled. Now he was frowning, and Itachi was almost positive that the frown had been there long before their talk that morning and would probably stay there until the moment when his emotions needed to be fully hidden during his mission. He was now absolutely sure that he didn't like dealing with a testy Jinya.

He wondered if he got this unpleasant at times, as well. If so, then he had a new respect for the people who continued to deal with him of their own free will. It had to be frustrating.

Pushing those thoughts away, Itachi decided not to call his friend out on his bluff. "Whatever you say." Instead, he carefully presented him with a wrapped brown bundle that had been cradled underneath one of his arms the entire time. "Take this."

His frown fading, Jin accepted the bundle with just as much care as Itachi used handing it to him, confused and anticipating. What in the world could Itachi be giving him, and why? However, as he sliced through the twine and unwrapped the canvass paper, he felt his breath catch briefly. _He isn't... He is... What...?_

It was white ANBU grade armor. Torso plates, arm guards, thigh plates, and shin guards. It was made of a metal that could only be found within Hi no Kuni, and many futile attempts had been made to recreate the armor by other countries. It was _expensive_ and if it was as new as it looked...

But no. On first inspection, it was gleaming white and new, but as he looked closer, he could see small dents and shallow scratches along the surface. This wasn't just purchased armor; this was obviously _Itachi's_ ANBU armor.

As soon as he opened his mouth to protest, Itachi raised a hand and gave him a deadly serious look. "It's my first set, and I outgrew it last year. You're smaller than me, it will fit. It isn't going to use in my closet. You will take it and you will wear it throughout the entire mission. Change into your official chuunin uniform and it will remain unseen beneath it." Jin opened his mouth again, and he glared. "Do not argue."

"...Are you even allowed to hand this out?" Jinya finally questioned after a moment. He didn't notice it as his hand began to fiddle with the straps of the uniform that was probably starker than his own hair. "I mean, am I going to get in trouble for being seen in this?"

Itachi granted his friend a dry look. "If you do things properly, you won't _be_ seen wearing it. And if you are, then you will leave any questions until it is brought to Hokage-sama or Inu's attention, in which case you will present 'touchstone' and that will be the end of the discussion. Am I clear on this matter, or do you have other questions?"

It was strange, but Jinya felt like he was talking to Crow, rather than Itachi as he replied with an affirmative. "No other questions." It took quite some effort to leave off the 'sir' at the end of that sentence.

But Itachi relaxed and the air around them did so as well, and Jinya went back to feeling like he was sitting around with his friend at some random hour in the night rather than his commander right before a mission.

"...Thanks, Itachi."

The Uchiha scion just hummed in response.

* * *

Naruto was angry at her, and so she couldn't sleep. Maybe if she could get him to say something or _anything_ to her at all, then Sakura could find a way to cool him down and make things better. But he wasn't talking, which was even worse than the yelling he'd almost done before being reminded that her mother was in the house, cleaning up from her birthday party earlier. A yelling Naruto could get everything on his mind out easily and then calm down. But a quite Naruto was more like an angry Sasuke; silent and broody until, at some point, he snapped.

Sakura didn't want him to snap on her. Not because she was particularly scared of what he might do or say; even angry, Naruto was one of the nicest people she knew. But after having Jinya reach his breaking point last night... She didn't know if she would be able to take it. She was still reeling over what felt like the sudden loss of Jinya from her life. She didn't know what she'd do if she felt like Naruto was leaving her too.

So far, he had stayed. Maybe because he had told Kakashi, his unofficial guardian, that he would be sleeping over with her. But she hoped it was really because he wasn't as angry as he _could_ be and didn't find it completely horrible to be in her presence. The less angry he was, the less time it would take for him to cool down, and the less likely he was to explode at her and end up feeling guilty when she broke down.

In any case, Naruto had been hunched over several sheets of paper with a pencil and a single-minded intensity since she had first drawn out all that she could remember of his seal. It was a fairly accurate rendition, since she had worked on his seal very often with Tsunade after the loss of Jiraiya. But her ability to remember what she saw and her ability to draw it out accurately were on two intensely different levels, so he had to deal with her sketch and her description of the base seals that came together, somehow, to make the full one that he held.

It had long since gotten late, late enough that her young body really wanted to go to sleep, but she had refrained because Naruto hadn't succumbed to any sort of fatigue yet. Of course, he probably wouldn't anytime soon, especially now that he actually _knew _about the living battery inside of him. The pinkette's attempts to stifle her yawns were growing more and more noticeable, enough so that he had actually glanced up at her once or twice. That was good. Maybe he would actually _look_ at her one of these times... Maybe...

She didn't realize that she had fallen asleep until it was almost three in the morning and Naruto was shaking her awake with a hand pressed to her mouth. Startled, but easily recognizing his features, even in the seemingly sudden darkness of the room which had previously been lit. When she had rubbed all the sleep from her eyes and sat up, he held out a huge sheet of paper to her.

Reaching out, confused, Sakura took hold of the paper with both hands and blinked as she stared at the completely foreign seal in front of her. Yet, the longer she stared, the more her mind awakened, and the less foreign it began to seem. Yet she couldn't figure out _why _she recognized most of the stylized lines and shapes in front of her.

_Wait... No, is that even...?_

_**It is! It's a reversal! Holy shit!**_ Inner Sakura appeared in a faint outline hunched over Naruto, pointed out each different component that they actually knew. _**This one for chakra flow, this one is for controls and releases, that one does something to recall things from places... I don't even recognize half of these, but all of them are on the one from Hinata. And there's more to it... It must be made to interact with the Shiki Fuujin!**_ _**He actually did it!**_

Looking around, Sakura could see that Naruto had made judicious use of the many scrolls she had gathered on sealing, usually through various transformations and entrance into less than legal sectors of Konoha and the smaller, nearby trading villages. She'd just been grabbing everything related to sealing that she came across, long before she got the idea to actually let Naruto help unseal whatever was on him rather than figure it out on her own.

But apparently she'd grabbed the right ones and Naruto had somehow managed to put them all together into something useable in a short amount of time. It was the kind of crazy luck she'd always attributed to coincidence when it came to the whiskered blonde, but after so long, she wasn't too prideful to send up a thankful prayer to Benten-sama for her assistance.

_Maybe, if I'm lucky, this is the beginning of a turnaround from the rotten karma I've been getting lately,_ Sakura thought as the two of them silently rolled up the scroll, agreeing with nothing but nods and hand gestures to begin checking it over later, when they were both well rested and the sun was out. The tension between them wasn't forgotten, but Naruto seemed to have vented out all of his frustration in figuring out the seal, and his upset wasn't enough to make things seem _bad_ between them.

Maybe thing really _were_ looking up?

At that moment, both of them froze, hearing the sound of footsteps passing the door of Sakura's room. Then, they were able to relax, because the footsteps didn't stop. Instead they continued a bit further down the hall, to where both the children knew Jinya's room was.

Belatedly, Sakura realized that she had stopped feeling Jinya's lurking chakra on the rooftop some time ago. Yet, strangely, she could feel both her mother's low civilian chakra and another's calm beacon in the hall. The second one felt familiar, achingly so, yet she couldn't figure out where she knew it from. However, she didn't risk checking. Instead, both she and Naruto leaned against the door to listen as the soft sound of crinkling paper and low voices filled the air.

"Oh dear, it seems that he left for another mission an hour ago. To Shimarikase Province, it seems. And I didn't even get to say goodbye this time..." That was her mother, Nadeshiko.

There was a quiet grunt of acknowledgement from the other person, a male. "He's good at what he does. It will go well, and then he'll come back and you can ask him about what happened today."

"Yes, but I do worry, you know? He's..."

The voices continued, but Sakura was frozen. _I know that voice._ But more than that voice, she knew this conversation. In her mind, it was 3:19 in the morning. Her mother had just come upstairs after having some tea. Her _father_ was back from a diplomatic mission and met her mother as he came out of their bedroom. And there was a note on Jinya's door, saying that he was gone for a mission. It was to Shimarikase Province.

And the next thing anyone heard from Jinya was just a letter all the chuunin and jounin wrote to their families in case of death in the line of duty.

The voices moved away with the footsteps and Naruto just barely managed to catch her before she crumbled to the ground, her mind completely cut off from her body. But all she could do was think, _All that time I spent looking out for it, all that time trying to find out what missions he went on and when he left and where he went, and it's happened. It's happened. He's going to die. Niisan is going to die. He's going to die and I'm never going to get to say sorry or goodbye or anything. Niisan is going to die hating me for being a liar. Niisan is going to die. Niisan is going to _die_ and I didn't stop it!_

_**Shut up. Shut up, shut up, shut up. Please, shut up!**_

_He's going to die! Niisan is doing to die! I might as well have not changed anything!_

_**Because you're not trying! So shut up! Why did you just break down? It's only been an hour or so, he's not even out of Hi no Kuni yet! You know where he's going; get out there! Now! Leave and save him!**_

The admonishment made her stop, completely. The huge tears going down her face slowed, her breathing paused, her eyes sat large and wide and locked onto Naruto's orange shirt. And then... Then she started.

She didn't care about secrecy and she didn't care about being quiet and she didn't care about getting in trouble. It wasn't too late. It _wasn't_ too late! She could still save her brother! And now, she would. This was it. This was _it_. He wasn't going to die!

Clothes. Weapons. _Gone_.

Sakura was too focused to protest when she realized Naruto was right behind her.

* * *

It was needless to say that over the past few years, Daisuke had gone through a lot of very strange situations. Walking around under constantly changing aliases and disguises, living in trees and on people's couches, going from husband to spy to informant to assassin to husband... Those were only a very small slice of his life.

Even so, there weren't a lot of things that startled him so badly as having his newly ten year old daughter who didn't know he was alive come rushing out of her room all geared up like a shinobi on a mission at three thirty in the morning. Especially when her nine year old friend went zooming past only half a moment later, sparing him nothing but a confused glare before continuing on.

It took him a moment to recover when they both barreled out of the nearest open window like tiny cannons. And then, after a few seconds of being dumbfounded, he realized what he'd just witnessed and had the worst sort of fear that he'd felt for years come over him. That was _his daughter_ running off in the middle of the night with weapons on hand!

With a hasty sprint to the door and out of it, he began the longest three hour chase of his life.

Nadeshiko came out of the kitchen in just enough time to watch, bemused, as the door slammed shut. But she didn't feel surprised. With a sigh and a shake of the head, she locked the door behind her and started on her way upstairs with her tea.

She paused outside of her daughter's door, but upon hearing no sounds to indicate the children were still awake, she decided to leave them be. She could always check on them in the morning.

* * *

A/N: This is remarkably short, but that's okay, because I'm also almost done with the next two parts. Yay.

But I'm **running on coffee and jellybeans**, so please point out errors.


	28. I n t e r l u d e

Yes… **This is, in fact, relevant to the story**. Just, I couldn't find any good place to put it. I thought it would be a good divider, though.

Next chapter will be up soon.

* * *

_**Interlude I: Haruno Daisuke**_

* * *

Haruno Daisuke was a dead man walking, and he had been since he was a small child.

For those living in the island nation of Nami no Kuni, tragedies caused by water, or at least copious amounts of it, were painfully common. In the rainy seasons there were storms with gale winds and enough force to uproot whole houses. In the winter, the air got so cold due to the water surrounding them that pneumonia and hypothermia were common conditions. When the spring came the catches were good, but the food that lived within the water were not the only ones carting around offspring; predators were out in force as well. Shark attacks were nothing new.

And despite the ridiculousness of one not knowing how to swim when living on an island, drowning was also a popular cause of death.

When Daisuke was four years old, he wandered along the shore and got caught in a tide far too strong for his very small body. It took three minutes for his parents to realize that he was missing and seven minutes to recover him from the waters, but only a minute and a half for him to drown to death.

He'd been dead for six minutes, a small eternity, when his heart and lungs suddenly began responding to his mother's frantic CPR technique. It was a miracle, but he was alive.

Grateful parents did not question miracles, even miracles that changed a child's pitch black hair to stark white, from his head to the tiny hairs on his arms and legs, or left that child with all the presence and bearing of a ghost from some old wives' tale. So Daisuke's parents did not dare wonder or ask.

And since Daisuke's parents never questioned him, he never told them of his short time in death with a towering monster-like figure or the phrase that would, for the rest of his life, haunt his dreams:

_"You live, tiny soul, only for the fate of this realm…"_

* * *

_**Interlude II: Tsunade's Choice**_

* * *

After years of warfare and lives lost and homes destroyed and forgotten, salvation came in the form of a ragged scroll with no origin and no titles; just a few sentences sprawling out in a spidery hand and a very short list of names.

It could be attributed to her propensity for drinking on the calm days that Senju Tsunade didn't question it when one moment, her desk was clear, and the next, there was some ancient look scroll sitting right on top of her empty sake tray. She squinted at it blearily, almost spared thought to where it came from, and then decided that it was obviously some new trick from Shizune in an attempt to get her to stop shunting her paperwork off on the disabled jounin.

And since it was just one scroll she opened it right away, instead of ignoring it as long as possible. And sobered.

_One last chance before the final stand. Two days eight hours three minutes twelve seconds. Choose and relinquish, Senju. And what was will never be again._

And there were a whole five names. One crippled civilian that she felt she should know. Two Suna-nin in Gaara's contingent on the northernmost front, far from where she was. One dying old veteran from Iwagakure. And Haruno Sakura.

Her decision felt important in the same way that winning money felt like losing lives and cracking mirrors felt like dooming her future. And if she had to choose anyone, as a Senju, as a Hokage, and as a Konoha-nin in general, it was most certainly going to be Haruno Sakura.

When she chose, if only in her mind, the words changed into what she saw as nothing but smudges and old ink.

But when Sakura read it, she saw instructions.

_Read it. Memorize it. Perform it. And learn to keep your secrets._

And there was more. Much, much more. But whatever was there was for Sakura's eyes only, so instead of wondering, Tsunade sent the girl away to do her new duty.

She thought she felt a god leaning over her shoulder when her former apprentice left.

And she knew that god was there when everything, _everywhere_, abruptly just... Stopped.

* * *

**A/N: **Yes. Haruno Daisuke, also known as 'Ghost', gets his abilities from being… Like a ghost. Not an actual ghost, of course, but still.

And second, you get both an allusion to how Sakura got here and the whys of the whole situation. _Sorta_.

In any case, this is just an in-between because I couldn't find any better place to put these pieces, but I still feel that they're important. Ish.

**I'll give a cookie (or omake, or one-shot, or brief character appearance) to anyone who can guess at where I'm going from here.**

(I'm really only saying this because I know you won't guess.)**  
**


	29. R u n n i n g T i m e

So apparently I said that this chapter would be up soon... Wow, what a damn lie, self from November. How could you say that to your readers? Shame on you. Shame.

Also, just in case you somehow forgot: **Second Bloom is NOT canon.**

_Now whoever made the TVtropes entry for this story can say that it's been updated!_

* * *

This chapter was brought to you after A Really Long Time by massive amounts of Skrillex and the lovely and encouraging **wlkwos**.

* * *

The apprehension was killing him. There was something wrong in the night air, clogging his throat and keeping his back straight with tension. The mission he was on was never going to be easy, he'd known that, but he hadn't expected to feel such a persistent sense of dread once he took up his post at the resonance point that had been the focus of so much attention lately.

Taking a deep, silent breath, he continued creeping vertically along the western wall of the building that housed the actual resonance point. He kept one hand in his weapons pouch and a portion of his attention on his two teammates at all times. He knew that the girls were good at their jobs, but that didn't stop him from worrying when the recent war preparations made even the most important missions go off with fewer shinobi than they really should. And when he felt this sick... It was better to take precautions.

Reaching the very edge of the building, he crouched, let his eyes fall half lidded, and conducted a more thorough search for chakra signatures around him. There were his teammates. Small animals. A dying bird. Plants.

And somewhere close by, another human. A shinobi. _Too _close by.

"Jinya!" The too-loud whisper came from behind him just as he pinpointed the sudden presence.

He spun, but the thin dagger that he held never left his hand. The only thing he was cognizant of as the light faded from his eyes was the coppery taste of blood as it slicked his throat.

"...Tatsuki."

The aforementioned girl cringed slightly when Jinya's eyes landed on her as he gently lowered the body of the nin he'd just taken down, pocketing the hitai-ate with the musical note on it as he did so. The green color of those eyes was familiar, but they were too cold and too hard for someone used to the warmth that they usually showed. After nearly five years, she should be used to the different person that Jinya became whenever they were on a real mission, but she didn't think that she ever could.

And it was worse to look into his eyes this time, because she'd almost fucked up. Badly.

"Gomen nasai," she spoke with her hands instead of her words, falling back into the code that she should've been using the entire time. "I'm not used to people sensing your approach. Or you taking down people from so close. Sorry," she repeated at the end, her hands in a position to show how contrite she was even as she avoided his eyes in favor of the surroundings.

Movement from his hands, jarring because they were gloved just like hers for once, caught her attention. His reply message was not unkind as he reminded her that there were two ANBU and a squad of jounin depending on them, but his unmoving face and cool gaze still gave the signed words more impact than they might have normally. And she found herself wondering how she and Suzu could ever have believed that he would let his distraction spill over into the mission.

So she simply nodded at him and knelt to rig the newest set of explosives as he stood guard over her. She couldn't wait until this mission was finished and they could get back to their nice, normal escort assignment.

Standing several feet away from her in an at-ease position, Jinya allowed his upset at nearly having his face sliced open to quietly fade away. It was a strange fluke that the Oto-nin had managed to sense him at the last moment, but he wouldn't have reacted so strongly if Jinya had assassinated him from a farther range as he usually tended to. However, bodies made noises went they collapsed to the ground, and noise was the last thing that his team needed on the mission that they were on. Tatsuki shouldn't have been so surprised when he went in for a close kill.

The tips of his fingers twitched as he felt a tiny, foreign presence on his right hand, but he kept his senses open and his mind focused on defense as he realized it wasn't a threat. The unique tapping sensation was familiar to him; one of Suzu's messenger insects had landed on him, and it was tapping out a message. After a few moments of paying attention, he got that the rest of the compound had been cleared, and only two teams of shinobi had been found including the lone shinobi that he had just taken down.

It was making all of them antsy, because an asset like the resonance point should've been guarded more heavily. They'd already found it much too easily, even if the general location had been divined by the trackers days ago. It almost felt like a trap... Almost. But something was definitely wrong.

_I can't wait for this to be over..._

* * *

Daisuke was not built for any sort of extended running or fighting. Cold-blooded he might often be and sneaky he most certainly was, but when it came to the physical aspects of being a shinobi, he was something of a failure. He owned many sharp things and he was supernaturally skilled in staying hidden until he was close enough to use them, but beyond those two extraordinarily useful talents, all he had was patience and a very good poker face going for him. He'd never really thought about what would happen when, sometime in the future, Operation Rabbit Hole shut down for good.

However, as he pushed on into the third hour of tracking down his daughter as she went _somewhere_, he could say with absolute certainty that he did not intend to be a shinobi. His daughter, though? And her friend? They would definitely be shinobi. Damned good ones too, if the chase they were putting up was even a minor indication of skill.

It baffled him that with only half a minute's head start, Sakura and her friend had managed to get away from him at all. He should've been able to pounce and stop them, no hassles. And barring that, they should've been caught when he finally broke away to alert the nearest patrol to watch for two compromised children at the gates. Between the Hyuuga on duty and the ever-ready chuunin hiding along the walls, it should've been effortless to capture them.

Instead, when the two had been spotted approaching the Eastern gate, they suddenly disappeared into a hole of some sort in a nearby training ground, and appeared again exiting an outcropping of rocks nearly at the edge of the Hyuuga sentry's vision range less than a minute later. And they hadn't lost speed at all; if anything, whatever put them into such a hurry seemed to become only more urgent, because they'd sped up.

He gave chase immediately, ignoring any sort of shouting behind him as he fought to keep them in his sights, aided only by the children's vibrant hair colors. It was only a few minutes before he could hear the near-silent rustling of leaves behind him that signified that a rapid response team had been dispatched to assist him. It didn't take them long to catch up to him, and more than that, overtake him. He didn't run all that fast.

So Daisuke wasn't quite sure where in the world they'd disappeared to an hour ago, because he had caught sight of the running children again and the rapid response team was nowhere to be seen or sensed. If he'd actually had the breath to waste, perhaps he would've called out or something. But it was taking everything in him just to keep running instead of collapsing into a sweaty, overly-flushed pink mess on the forest floor, never mind keeping the contents of his stomach down.

He felt like a dry sponge had taken the place of his lungs and promptly been set on fire. Everything about him burned except the freezing cold sweat soaking every inch of his person. He wanted to stop, _badly_. But more than that, he wanted to catch up to his daughter and maybe shake her by her little shoulders and demand to know what in the _world _she was doing and how the hell she could still be running, pace unwavering, when he seemed to slow down a little more with every passing minute.

But that was just it. She was still running... And neither of the children had slowed down even the tiniest bit.

He had an absent thought, in between gasping breaths and blistering feet: _Whatever this new Academy curriculum is doing, it's damn effective._

Daisuke would tell Sarutobi that, if he managed to live through this run. And he would try not to stab whoever had come up with the endurance program, for training his daughter so well.

His guts tightened as they went shooting into the darker, sparser forests that he knew clearly marked the boundary between Hi no Kuni and Yu no Kuni, the latter of which bordered the Land of Rice. The last thing he wanted right now was to see his daughter running anywhere near one of the countries and enemy forces that Operation Rabbit Hole had been keeping such a close eye on lately.

And like a lightning bolt, the epiphany struck him hard: that was _exactly_ was Sakura was doing.

Just earlier, he had reflected on how strange it was that his son, who absolutely doted on his little sister, would do anything _other_ than go to the first birthday party that she'd had in ages when he was in the village rather than on a mission. _Strange, but not worrying, _he had thought.

Time and time again, he found that his daughter was heaping skill upon skill into her shinobi arsenal, with or without the assistance of teachers at the Academy. But he'd figured out a long time ago that Sakura was a lot more than above average in intelligence, and it wasn't _too_ surprising for her to be headstrong despite her earlier shyness as a child, especially with her mother's roots. It was no shock that she was advancing so quickly as a shinobi, just... _Strange. But not too worrying._

Days ago, Jinya had been the one to call in the first of many distressing seals placed around the village. He had a keener eye than most it seemed, especially since hundreds of other shinobi passed them without a second glance at the walls, door frames and beams where they were inscribed. _Strange. Not worrying, though._

The analysts in ANBU's Tracking and Homeland Security department were for some reason very sure that the main resonance point for the seals lay somewhere between eastern Rice Country and the middle of Yu no Kuni. He couldn't figure out why it would be in such an out of the way place, where it couldn't be easily defended, but Daisuke wasn't an analyst for a reason. _Strange, but not my problem to worry about._

And then there was Shimarikase province, which Daisuke had only just realized lay on the unclaimed border lands between the Land of Rice and Yu no Kuni. Which was the supposed location of the resonance point to the seals that Jinya had been the first to notice, mere days before Sakura's birthday party which he had uncharacteristically missed. Shimarikase province... Which was the location of Jinya's sudden, previously unannounced mission.

A mission that he left on mere hours before his daughter went racing from the house like a demon fresh out of Hell, in what seemed to be the same direction.

Daisuke knew all about leaders with good intentions. Hell, he was sure that somewhere out there, at that very moment, Danzo was looking out over his troops and thinking about how Konoha would be so much stronger after he had destroyed everything _weak _within it and built it back up in his image. The goals were all the same, in the end; it was the method that continually differed. And he'd never found Sarutobi's methods terrifying before. Now, though...

He didn't know who it was giving his daughter orders. Maybe it was the Hokage. Maybe it was Danzo. Maybe it was someone entirely different. But even if he had never learned anything else from his time in Root or the long days of Operation Rabbit Hole, he still knew, without a single doubt, that he _could_ find out who it was and he most certainly _would_ when the opportunity appeared.

Daisuke's lungs felt like they were ripping into bloody pieces, but somehow, he found it within himself to speed up. At least for the moment, Daisuke wasn't quite sure who to direct the sudden, intense hatred inside of him towards. But at least it could fuel him for a few more miles yet.

He knew where he was going now.

* * *

Itachi was beginning to feel that vacations were nothing but an illusion. How long ago had that sensation begun...? He wasn't sure. Sometime after Uzumaki Duty was officially dropped off the ANBU roster, he was sure; it was only once he began taking A-ranks on a more regular basis that he stopped being so excited to receive them. And that had only happened after Naruto's first semester in the Academy.

Or... No, it had begun even before then, although effects took some time to show themselves. It began on that damned courier mission to the Land of Iron, during the very same week that the 'Not-War' of the shinobi nations had begun. It began, he suspected, the very moment that he met Uchiha Madara's single, cursed eye. Once that had happened, he'd never truly had a choice, no matter the options offered to him. Now he just had to deal.

"You're always thinking so deeply, even at night, ne, Itachi-kun? You should relax some time."

His ancestor had the sort of voice that caused Itachi's Sharingan to flare into existence without any conscious prompting. Contrarily, it took all of his will power for him to clench his eyes shut tightly and deactivate his kekkei genkai in the moments before the man dropped down from the ceiling. When he rolled over and looked outside of his blanket cocoon, he was still fighting back his own visceral desire to kill the anomaly before him, mostly because killing him didn't seem to be possible.

"I will assume that you have called on me for a reason." His voice was rough from sleep and low from the tension he felt. Itachi didn't like having this man in the same building as his little brother. Yet whether he stood in full battle gear or rested in the warmth of his bed, had Madara wanted something with Sasuke, there was nothing that Itachi could actually do stop him. He would just be glad that his brother had yet to catch anyone's interest.

"Assume, hm?" Something made the masked man chuckle in the dark. "You are correct, Itachi-kun. I have a task for you. A test of what you have learned so far, my favorite student. And for that, I'm afraid that you will need to get out of bed. In fact, you may not return here for quite some time! Are you excited?" He clapped his hands together, as if expecting Itachi to leap up with new energy at that very moment.

But Itachi did not leap up because he was _not _excited and not even his survival, which was dependent on keeping this man satisfied in some way, could make him feign that emotion. What he did do was hold back a sigh and extract himself from his covers. For once, his ancestor was silent as he stood before him; he could almost feel the raised eyebrow at his attire.

Itachi had gone to sleep in full armor. Not his standard ANBU uniform, seeing as he was off duty, but his 'casual' shinobi attire, complete with gray body armor, two thigh holsters and his sandals. He didn't know how many hours he'd been laying in his bed, staring at the ceiling and feeling cold dread clinging at his spine whenever he contemplated getting comfortable, but he'd retired early in the evening and it was getting close to dawn by his own estimation. He kept hoping for the bad feeling brought on by Jinya's words quite some time earlier to abate, but it steadfastly held on in the back of his mind.

As soon as he withdrew his tanto from under his pillow and attached his standard supply pouch to his belt, he was fully prepared. "Your instructions?" he questioned, raising a brow at the silent man across from him.

Ever so slowly, Madara began to clap, the dulled sounds of his gloved hands coming together breaking the very brief silence after Itachi's words. Something about his shoulders said that he was amused. "Bravo, Itachi-kun." With that last accolade, he removed a small, thick envelope from his pocket and handed it over to the younger Uchiha. Then he disappeared.

Itachi immediately walked down the hall to his younger brother's room. He sensed nothing amiss, but he peeked in anyways. Sasuke was sprawled haphazardly over as much of the futon as his short limbs could cover and there was a growing damp spot under his left cheek. Nothing unusual there.

Sasuke's quiet breathing hitched, and then the boy released a long sigh as he opened his eyes just slightly. "Niisan," he mumbled, half into his pillow. "Leaving?" His eyes fluttered closed again.

It didn't surprise Itachi that his brother had somehow awakened to his presence; it had become apparent some time ago that Sasuke was a sensor of sorts, if only based on how unfailingly he came to find Itachi whenever he returned home. He failed to contain a slight smile as he knelt next to his younger brother, briefly resting a hand in his hair. "I'll return soon enough," he said quietly. "Goodnight, otouto."

"Night, 'tachi..."

Assured of his brother's continued well-being, he left the house silently, absently leaving one of his shuriken on the kitchen counter as he went. His mother would know he was gone on a mission, rather than some emergency, that way. It was only when he was safely clear of the Uchiha district that he opened the envelope to divine the parameters of his mission.

Only one detail stood out at first: _Shimarikase Province_.

* * *

There were some days (and nights, and afternoons, and timeless moments) when Bear simply wished that he had never been born. At times he focused on the brand spanning his forehead, but that hadn't meant much since he began living behind his porcelain ANBU masked. Other times he thought of not getting the girl, of his nieces that could have been his daughters if things had happened another way, but that had more to do with not being good enough than having never existed.

It was mostly when he was standing still and watching the lifeblood seep out of some other human being that he wished that his soul could have chosen to be a flower instead of a baby that grew into a murderer. Times like now. Even though he had turned his eyes away long before, the image was still imprinted in his mind, superimposing itself over his real surroundings.

"For fuck's sake, will you stare at an enemy or something instead? You're giving me the chills!" his partner hissed quietly from two muddy sinkholes away, where she was cleaning her blade off on another unfortunate enemy's leg. Mouse never seemed to have the same problems with coming out superior in battle that he did.

His former enemy's bloodless face finally faded from his mind's eye, and Bear found himself searching out the other side of the strange bog his team had retreated to after the detonation went through as planned. His eyes found the two chuunin girls with them easily enough; they stood a few feet apart, facing in opposite directions, keeping an eye out now that the short and bloody battle had died down. Three jounin had already left to scout for any other enemies after them, so the girls' watch was less for any obvious danger and more for anything that could interrupt their third teammate.

The white haired boy knelt between them with the last of the jounin originally on their mission laying before him, and his face was screwed up with concentration as he painstakingly extracted fragments of metal from the unconscious man's chest. It was a stroke of unexpected luck that they had a healer, even a very amateur one, in their midst; if he hadn't staunched the most major bleeding already, it was doubtful that Shun would be breathing at all after the strange bomb he'd taken head on.

It was strange that the boy's skills were mentioned nowhere in his file when medic nin were so coveted, but Bear got the feeling that he was self-taught anyways if the occasional wince and near-invisible cringe he made at digging around in someone's chest cavity were any indication. Healers were generally desensitized to that sort of thing within the first month of training, and as a rule, medic nin were always supposed to go through _licensed _training because of how deadly any mistakes could be.

It would be a shame to have the boy get any sort of demerit for learning these life-saving skills on his own; he was pretty good for a teen. But Bear wouldn't be mentioning it in any case, and he was sure none of his comrades would either. As long as the rapid response squad that had intercepted them earlier didn't say anything in their report to the Hokage, he would be fine.

Or as fine as anyone's whose younger sibling was apparently on the run with the resident Jinchuuriki could be. Bear wasn't mentioning _that_ to anyone either; the rapid response team searching for the children was already back on its original task and the Haruno boy was none the wiser, so he may as well let sleeping dogs lie. He'd opened his mouth too often lately anyways.

It would probably get him killed at some point.

Across the clearing, Jinya tried not to cringe again as he felt the Bear-masked ANBU begin staring at him for the third time in ten minutes. The chills going down his spine were distracting in the worst kind of way, especially when he was so close to being able to close his first-ever patient's chest. The healing experience was a lot different here on the former battlefield than it had been with Sakura in their backyard, fixing up wounded animals and trying to revive smelly fish. But he should've expected that.

Nothing was going right lately, and that was without prodding at the giant, painful mental sore that currently represented his emotions towards his imouto. _I shouldn't be thinking about her right now, _he told himself silently, pushing any thoughts away. Instead, he focused on his two teammates, separately battered and bruised from the surprise attack that would've taken all their lives if it weren't for the surprise interception of another Konoha team shortly after the Oto and Kusa shinobi had appeared. It still stung him somewhere inside that they'd put all that effort into a location that turned out to be just an extremely elaborate decoy. Lives lost for nothing... But that was the shinobi life, wasn't it?

It still rung strange to him that another Konoha team would be deployed anywhere near an operation like the one he was on, which technically only existed under the Hokage's eyes. But that was nothing for him to question. In fact, the mission itself was technically complete, since they had destroyed their target and taken out any enemies they encountered. When he was finished healing this jounin, he, Suzu and Tatsuki along with their instructor Genma would start on their way to Shimarikase Province for their _official _mission while the ANBU and other Jounin left for Konoha once more.

What bothered him much more about the entire situation was that even after blowing up an entire structure, killing four different men and actually coming close to death himself, he still felt that the worst was yet to come. He couldn't even recall exactly how many hours ago he had first felt that strange chill down his spine when speaking to Itachi; all he knew was that the moon had come and gone, the sun was still rising, and he was feeling more and more nauseous the closer his team came to 'tomorrow'. To think that something _worse _than the last few hours would be throwing itself at him soon...

_Ugh_.

Hopefully, he would survive.

* * *

"We lost the other tail now."

At first, Sakura didn't seem to acknowledge his words, but the two of them slowly began to decelerate and Naruto knew that she'd listened. They came to a stop finally and ended up nestled in the gnarled roots of a tree whose top he couldn't even make out due to the sheer size of it. He wasn't really interested in that anyways; mostly he was just breathing and wishing he had some water for his dry mouth. He wasn't willing to mention anything though.

Sakura's gaze was vacant as she stared off in the direction that they were headed, and she didn't even seem to notice it as her left hand flared up with green chakra and rested briefly over her torso, then her throat, before passing over her splayed out legs. They were both half-upright, leaning against the roots of the tree, but he was sure she wasn't even paying attention where they were. She hadn't the last two times they had their three-minute breaks either.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Naruto was still angry with her. But he'd stopped paying attention to it the moment she collapsed so long ago. Instead, he focused on more important things, like making Sakura stop to rest and heal her muscles even though he thought he could keep going, or letting her know that people were following her, or telling her whenever he came across those unique smells in the air that he associated with her older brother, so they could follow those trails directly.

In the few times that she'd been focused on him, Sakura had handed over her kunai pouch and asked him to put on his goggles even while she pulled down her own. He was guessing that he got the weapons because he only knew the one offensive jutsu that she'd taught him while she had an actual arsenal, but he still had no clue why they had their goggles on. There was no way he would question her though.

"Naruto, how close are we?" Her voice startled him.

He closed his eyes for a moment to try and gather his mind, then opened them again to find her looking directly at him, expectant. "Really close." His eyes turned in the direction that she'd just been looking in. "But... I don't think this is the same mission you were looking for, Sakura-chan. You said it was supposed to be an escort, right? But... They just finished blowing something up." He squinted. "There's that smoke that Iruka-sensei showed us on the a while ago, remember it? It fades away really fast so enemies can't track it."

Sakura put the knuckle of her index finger in her mouth and gnawed on it thoughtfully. It looked strange when her face was still so blank. When she removed it after a few moments it was wet with her saliva, but she didn't seem to notice at all. "We still haven't reached Shimarikase Province yet. _That_ mission at least begins in Shimarikase Province, so it hasn't happened yet. This..." The finger went back to her mouth, but now her brows furrowed. Then it was out again. "Was Cell 19 appended to another mission first...?" She mused. Her hand raised a third time.

"Will you stop _doing _that?" Shuddering, Naruto stopped her from putting her finger back into her mouth. He much preferred it when she tore up the bottom of her shirts by accident.

With several blinks, Sakura seemed to remember that he existed again. Her eyes focused on him. "We need to get to the next city, Naruto. And we can't be seen. They're already searching for us, or for you... I should have sent you back before leaving the village. Now you're going to get into trouble for me, again. I'm sorry."

Under her suddenly heartfelt expression he blushed, a little bit uncomfortable at having such sincerity sent towards him. "I wouldn't have let you go off by yourself anyways, so it doesn't matter, does it? We're friends and friends help each other, no matter what." He was sticking to that. "We'll deal with whatever happens when we get there. For now let's just go save Jin, okay? I mean... He's almost like my brother too, so we definitely have to help him!"

Sakura was startled at his words, but only for a moment. Then she was smiling as Naruto blushed and pretended that he hadn't said anything so mushy. "Arigatou, Naruto." Exhaling heavily, Sakura let herself fall back into a calmer mindset. "Now, we've got a bit of time, so let me do a bit of healing on your muscles and your lungs. It should help."

Naruto moved closer to be healed, and she continued, "In about three more minutes we're going to start heading towards my eight o'clock direction, and that's when it's most important to have our goggles. The closer we get to Yu no Kuni's border, the denser the air is going to get. It'll look like mist or light fog, but the swamps there and in Rice Country have acidic compounds that can burn your eyes badly. I'm going to need you to stay close to me since you navigate better in bad light, okay?"

"Hai," he replied with a nod.

"Good. Keep your left hand by your kunai pouch at all times, we don't know what we'll run into once we make it to the border. And I don't mean just shinobi, either, so keep an eye out in _all_ directions," she added in a stern tone even as she ended her healing of his legs with a light pat. "Whoever was behind us might be going the same way that we are, and we don't know when we'll catch up to niisan's team. Either way, we can't afford to be seen. If you even think we might be near someone, tap me and then henge into a tree or something as soon as possible. Got it?"

"Got it."

"Good," Sakura repeated. Then she turned towards her eight o'clock and glanced back as if to ask him, 'ready?' At his nod, she spoke her last words for a time. "Let's go."

The chase began anew.

* * *

**A/N: **Well... Yeah.

Anyways, for the adventures of somewhat canon grown ups instead of little kids, everyone should try out the fledgling story **To The Deep North** by **wlkwos**, which is only a few chapters in but which has more regular updates than this (not that such is at all hard to accomplish.) You'll definitely like it if you enjoyed the other fic I recc'd,** One Small Kindness**. Which has a sequel now, by the way. Both of them have a lot more Uchiha than Second Bloom does, which is apparently always cool.

Also, if not for **wlkwos**, I promise you this chapter probably wouldn't have come out til like... Summer or something (real summer, not this weird weather over here in the States.) Like the year that passed after Chapter 3, for those of you who remember.

Also, feel free to rant at me about how upset you are at my so-called 'soon' uploading of this chapter. I was upset at myself too. Especially after I deleted the whole thing and started over from pure frustration... Twice or thrice or several more times. (Though, after I deleted everything and started over this time, it only took me a week or so. What a fail.)


	30. C o n f l i c t

Yes, I am alive. No, I did not forget this existed the way I did after chapter three back in 09. An d yes, I am dedicated to making you feel things. I think you deserve it, as a sort of thanks for actually reading this and keeping up with it and helping me with your comments and such. So, uh, yeah.

Now, let us not forget to give a little praise to the lovely **wlkwos**, who edits and makes this readable and encourages me to extend fight scenes. Because I can't spell anything with double consonants and I still write in wordpad.

Onward~

* * *

He'd only made it out of Water Country a week ago, but Utakata already wished he was back at home, if only for the cool sea breeze. Being on the mainland was like constantly walking around in a giant furnace, whether the day was cloudy or not, and he hadn't even crossed into either Fire Country or Wind Country, which were supposed to be the hottest. How could anyone stand to live in a place where the summer lasted for just over half of the year and the cooler months were _still_ obnoxiously warm? It was almost enough to make him go crawling back to Mist... Almost.

Nothing could convince him to willingly go back under the thumb of the masked freak controlling his cousin. Yagura was both the jinchuuriki of the three-tails and the leader of the Hidden Mist; the latter was purely through conquest. Sharingan or not, it should be impossible for the masked man to keep him under such an elaborate genjutsu at all, and certainly not for the near two years that he had so far.

He still didn't know if it was his cousin or the masked man that had set the Kill-On-Sight orders for his warrant, and he supposed that it didn't matter anymore either. If it had been his cousin Yagura, then he was truly unwanted now, because without that family tie Mist had no use for any part of him but the demon he carried. And if it had been the masked man pulling his cousin's strings, then surely there was no hope of Yagura ever recovering. If he could still fight the genjutsu at all, the other jinchuuriki would never have allowed his own village to put a fifty million ryo bounty on his cousin's head.

Either way, returning was no longer an option for him. And by now, all Utakata wanted was to truly disappear, preferably to somewhere that would actually allow him some form of downtime. It was for this reason that he had gone through the tiresome effort of fully disguising himself as a noble and hiring an escort team from another nation. With a paid escort, he would be able to enter another country without being stopped by one of the various squadrons appearing everywhere as the silent war between the countries continued to escalate. If he was lucky, the chuunin team wouldn't have any skilled sensors, and his strength would go unquestioned. But even if they did wonder about his abilities, he wasn't paying them to ask questions; he was paying to be escorted to another place. No village could afford to turn down missions right now, in any case. The funds were too important.

At present, Utakata was sitting in the lobby of an inn on the western side of Shimarikase Province, and he couldn't wait to leave. Somewhere behind him there was a team of elite hunter-nin, probably containing the closest equivalent Mist had to a sealing expert, and it was only a matter of time before they discovered his location. He had no desire to do battle with them, or even let them catch his trail. The single night he was spending at this inn with the escort team was already far too much time wasted.

Not that the team knew that.

It seemed as if he had been assigned a good team; he based this on the way they had smelled of blood when they appeared, even if it was freshly washed. The jounin was laid back, but his eyes were constantly roaming and there was a set to his shoulders that told Utakata that he was paying attention to everything around him. He had taken a post sitting atop the wardrobe in the large hotel room and remained with his back to the corner. By appearances his mind was drifting in the wind, but Utakata knew better than that.

The chuunin of the team were atypical in that the formation was two females and one male, but all three appeared competent. The boy blended in well despite his hair coloring and had the looks of a long-range fighter, based on his various equipment packs. He also seemed to be the team medic if his discrete care of both the girls' minor wounds was a good judging point. At present, he was sitting in the window sill and appeared to be napping just as his mentor was.

The taller of the two girls was lanky and moved like she was stalking something, constantly. Her hands seemed to constantly linger near her weapons pouch and something about her gave he impression that she was easily excitable and always ready to move. It was a good trait, in some ways. She, along with the other girl on the team, was currently assigned to the patrol shift outside of the room and possibly the inn as well.

Something about the smaller girl and the last of the chuunin in the squad made him feel a strange kinship to her. None of the chuunin had introduced themselves with a surname, but he suspected that this girl was one of Konoha's well-known Aburame clan. Her chakra created an orbit for the hundreds of thousands of tinier ones inside of her. Although her eyes were hidden by sunglasses and her face remained in the same expression every time that he could see it, Utakata suspected that she could feel something strange from him as well. It was the sort of thing he would have liked to investigate if he weren't on the run or from a nation that wasn't necessarily an ally of Konoha, depending on which side of the civil war one supported.

The girl that felt almost like she held a demon as well was on the roof and moving closer, so far as he could tell. He suspected that the other girl was coming closer as well, but sensing had never been his strong suit when it had nothing to do with his prisoner. Either way it seemed that the boy and his jounin instructor would be going on their guard shift soon, as they were stirring themselves.

With a mental sigh, Utakata tried to get comfortable where he was sitting and perhaps catch some rest. All his thinking was useless anyways. In a few hours they would be gone.

* * *

Miserable, exhausted, and blind just about summed up Daisuke's status at the moment. He had made it into Shimarikase Province at roughly the same time that the painful burning of his eyes from running through the unexpectedly acidic swamp gases had finally culminated in black spots appearing and overtaking his already blurred vision. While everywhere that could possibly hurt on his body did so with gusto, the burn in his eyes was on a whole new level of 'excruciating.'

Being blind and crippled by pain wasn't an enjoyable experience, especially when he was attempting to find his child. Within ten minutes of arriving in the mostly-sleeping city, he had found himself stranded in an alleyway trying not to scratch at his eyes and damage them further, although mostly he failed at it. For once, he was very grateful at the pain tolerance training he had received as a Root operative, because he probably would have collapsed a long time ago in other circumstances. It was amazing enough that he could even breathe right now, however harshly.

It was hard to think that only hours ago, however many that may have been, he was basking in his wife's presence and enjoying a hot cup of tea. Daisuke was positive that this entire ridiculous situation was some new form of karma after his many sins.

Of course, since he was blind and doing a bad job of recovering, he had no way of knowing that his situation was about to go through yet another massive change. This change came in the form of Jinya, freshly assigned to his patrol shift, hunting down the strange sounds in the alleyway to the left of the inn where the client was staying and then completely freaking out.

After cautiously rounding the corner into the alleyway, it took nearly forty seconds for Jinya to react to what he was looking at. He then proceeded to press his back into the nearest wall and cover his eyes, cursing to himself. "Fucking shit, not now, this is _not _the fucking time to have these hallucinations!" he hissed to himself. He peeked out from behind his hands only long enough to see that his dead father was still sitting slumped on the floor. "Shit! Shit, shit, shit..."

_Jinya?_ Daisuke questioned himself cautiously. He wasn't very good at determining chakra signatures, but even the tiny bit he did feel was familiar. Besides that, he recognized the voice. It hadn't occurred to him that he would run into his son here; although he knew that Jinya's mission was at this location, he was mostly hoping to just intercept his daughter and flag down the rapid response team, although to what purpose, he wasn't quite sure. He hadn't thought far enough ahead to wonder what would happen to Sakura and her little blonde friend after they were finally stopped.

But maybe this was a solution. Jinya was smart and capable. He could catch Sakura, and hopefully, he could also keep her from the worst of her possible fates. Of course, there would also be the issue of Daisuke actually being alive to deal with... He would have to stall on that somehow.

"Son?" he rasped out.

Jinya nearly had a heart attack. _Oh god my hallucination talks!_ "No," he groaned, clapping his hands over his ears. "I don't need this right now! You're not real!"

Well, Daisuke hadn't been expecting that. "I am talking to you, aren't I?" He wished that he could see; it would be a real help at this moment. Of course, if he _could_ see, then he wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

"Yes, I know! Now stop! You're dead so go, I don't know, be dead or something!" The white haired boy was having a bit of trouble breathing at this point. _Oh god I'm going to be taken to the deprogrammers. No, I have to take myself to the deprogrammers. Oh god what if they take Sakura too because of me? Go away go away go away!_

He had never known his son as one to panic but, after taking care of Nadeshiko for so many years, he thought he could handle it. There was no point in addressing that he wasn't dead, because Jinya wouldn't even try and believe until he calmed down. Instead, he would give his son something more important to focus on. "You don't have time to panic, Jinya," he spoke as calmly and clearly as he could. It was hard to do with the burning in his eyes and a throat as dry as sandpaper. "Sakura is in trouble right now. If you don't find her..."

Jinya was torn on how to react. _Do I dare open my eyes and find out what the illusion is talking about?_ But why would he trust an illusion? _But why would my illusion talk to me about Sakura being in danger?_ What if this wasn't an illusion and Sakura really was in danger? _But otou-san is DEAD. _Oh god what if he was being visited by the dead now? _What if all those dead fishes and squirrels Sakura has been practicing on come back to haunt me? _What if he didn't listen to his dead father and ended up being haunted by Sakura herself?! _Oh god Sakura might die if I don't listen to the dead illusion!_

He uncovered his face again and did an admirable job of not flinching at his father's unfocused, filmy gaze. _Oh god I'm talking to a dead person!_ "Where is she?" he croaked out with the barest hint of panic behind his voice, feeling all sorts of chills up and down his spine. _Please let this be a nightmare, please let this be a nightmare, please let this be a be a nightmare!_ Embarrassing himself by waking up from a nightmare in front of his client and Genma-sensei had to be better than this.

Daisuke was completely oblivious, mostly because he was blind. "She is trying to find youuuu..." Suddenly, he felt extremely dizzy. Was this what happened when someone tried to talk after running until their body wanted to collapse?

Jinya cringed at the way his father's ghost, or his hallucination, or whatever it was suddenly began leaning to the side, sliding down the wall and generally adding to the creepiness of the entire encounter. Should he help it up? _Oh god I don't want touch it what if it feels real?!_He decide to go with the 'ignore' option. "Okay but what am I supposed to do though?"

The words met his ears, but they were garbled and twisted as Daisuke's blood suddenly began pounding in his ears. _This can't be good. _"You need to save her when she comes, Jinya... Or else..." He meant to say, 'or else the response team will get to her first,' but he was becoming steadily more light headed and all his thoughts seemed to be slipping away from him. Why did he feel like he was forgetting something...?

After a minute or so of silence, the thing that looked like his father went completely limp and then started to spasm. Jinya cringed again, feeling as if thousands of spiders were crawling all over his body. _Oh god ew!_ Since it obviously wasn't saying anything else, he backed away carefully and hoped that he had no reason to come near this alleyway again. And if he did have to come back, hopefully the... The _thing_ would be gone.

As soon as it was out of his direct line of sight he completely booked it, just in case it decided to spring up and attack him or something. Making his way to the roof of the inn, he let the pre-dawn light warm him and wash away some of his shivers. What was he even supposed to do now? Search for Sakura, since the dead thing was so adamant on her being here somehow? _No, Jin, the mission is more important than being crazy!_ Especially if Suzumushi's strange insistence that their client was actually rather strong happened to be true.

_Sakura_...

He really didn't have good feelings about anything at the moment. _Mission over crazy, mission over crazy!_ With this mantra as his rock, Jinya began clenching and unclenching his fists as slowly as he could manage through his shivers. _Deep breaths, Jin. _He exhaled harshly and did his best to regain his normal mission calm. _I can do this. I can just pretend it didn't happen... And if Sakura does somehow appear, well, fuck, I'll figure out what to do then._

Or at least that was what he would keep telling himself. At this point he'd let himself think anything to try and regain some kind of control over reality.

* * *

"Oi, Mei. There's two sets of tracks. Do you wanna stay on the tail or should we just try and intercept? Either way they'll probably make contact before we do."

As Zabuza rose from where he had been crouched down, Mei briefly spared a moment to question how in the world he could find tracks at all in the ridiculous swamps they were trampling through. It was hard enough just seeing three feet ahead of them. Quickly, however, she discarded her wandering thoughts and responded to his question with one of her own: "Which leads to _us_ making contact soonest? Conflict is unavoidable. Our objective is simply to keep them from extracting the demon and killing a potentially powerful ally."

"Interception it is." Zabuza grunted, then turned to his left, where Haku and Chojuro had taken standing positions atop some gnarled tree roots. "Kid, make a mirror as close to the city as you can and tell me what you see."

Haku nodded and formed a single hand-seal, causing the greenish-brown water to pull itself out of the mud at his feet. After a moment, all the impurities seemed to slough off the water, which then formed itself into a clear sheet of ice in front of his masked face. It was blank to anyone else looking, but he could see the early dawn light spilling over a road that would lead into Shimarikase Province quite a distance further along it.

He so far had an uncanny ability to pinpoint the team of hunter-nin they were pursuing, possibly because of the long work he had put into imitating them lately. It was almost easy for Haku to spot the many discolored spots hidden among the dark marsh grounds surrounding the road. They appeared to be doing exactly what his master had been attempting earlier; tracking Utakata.

"They have not yet located his trail, but they have narrowed down the choices it seems. I would estimate less than an hour before they begin scouring the city in search of Utakata-san. If we move directly to the city instead of following their exact trail we may be able to make it there only shortly after they do. At that point, it is only a matter of finding him first... However, it is unlikely we would manage to, with the considerable numbers that Yagura has employed to retrieve Utakata-san's prisoner."

"Ah..." Chojuro, although he had barely raised his voice, immediately gained the attention of the others. Blushing, he looked down and spoke, "Perhaps it would be a better idea not to enter the province." He nervously nudged his glasses up, knowing that Mei was looking at him, even if he couldn't see her. "With Utakata-san already inside, along with whatever people he needed to meet that made him stop, and the hunter-nin obviously intending to enter as well, it will probably be very hard to move around stealthily. Since there is only one viable path leading in and out of the city, perhaps we could prepare an ambush?" His ears had turned pinker and pinker as he talked, and by the end of his final sentence, his voice was nearly a whisper.

Seeing that his friend had reached his limit for being able to talk in front of Mei, Haku resumed speaking. "I think it is a sound plan, Zabuza-sama. Once we have gotten closer to the entrance I would be able to set up mirrors to monitor the few other exit points, on the off-chance that Utakata-san chooses another exit route. It should also save us effort, as it is unlikely that the hunter-nin will wish to engage him within city limits, considering that they are after a trained jinchuuriki."

Zabuza went over the plan briefly in his mind, and decided it was pretty sound. He shrugged and looked back to his right. "Mei?"

The redheaded woman closed her eyes in thought for a short while before nodding firmly to herself. "Yes," she finally replied, opening her eyes again. "We'll go with this plan. Good thinking, Chojuro-kun. Now..." She glanced around at her companions and saw no reason to delay. "Let's move out."

* * *

The Haruno family lived in a modest two floor home. It was painted a very light shade of blue and topped with the garish red shingles that almost all of Konoha's buildings ended up with after one shinobi too many raced across the roof. The Uchiha matriarch wasn't quite sure how, but the colors managed to complement each other, and the light green paint lining each of the windows that she could see didn't stand out at all. It was the kind of building that would never be permitted in the regal Uchiha district, and yet...

"This is a home where extraordinary children are raised," Mikoto murmured to herself, standing just far enough from the doorway that she could take in the entire building front. The colorful place before her had produced Jinya, her oldest son's only close friend, or maybe just his only friend at all, as well as Sakura, a little girl that was probably destined to overtake the Sannin in greatness. _What is a day inside this place like...?_

Perhaps she would find out.

Mikoto raised her left hand and signaled to the two ANBU stationed on nearby buildings that they could consider themselves released. Even as they disappeared, her hand smoothly continued towards the door, and she politely knocked three times. Then she stepped back, knowing that she couldn't expect an answer anytime soon; after all, Haruno Nadeshiko would only just be rousing herself from the sleep technique the ANBU had been holding her under.

After a few short minutes, footsteps could be heard making their way to the door. She could tell that the woman on the other side was rushing, trying hard not to keep her waiting any longer, both by the tempo of the steps and by the slight scuffing sounds that she knew probably accounted for objects being encountered. It felt nice to be treated like a normal, wanted visitor.

At last, the steps stopped and the door was unlocked. The action lasted for eight seconds at most, but each clicking sound the mechanism made seemed to echo over and over in her head for minutes. It was the anticipation, she supposed. But finally, the door actually opened. Mikoto had just enough time to wonder, in an absent manner, why she had never actually met the mother of the Haruno children before she came face to face with with Nadeshiko for the first time.

Her heart stopped beating for a moment.

For a moment, and only a moment, she didn't see those green-not-gray irises or the unfamiliar curls in the shockingly red hair that she _knew_. She didn't notice the catlike shape of those eyes or the too-thin lips or the overwhelming similarity to the face of the young girl she thought of almost as a daughter. For a moment, and only a moment... She saw Kushina.

But with her first blink, it was gone, and her heart was breaking once more for a friend she would never see again. She didn't let it show though. Instead, she smiled and held a hand out to shake, her onyx eyes as welcoming as she could make them when some old wound inside of her was ripping itself open for the umpteenth time. "It's nice to finally meet you, Haruno-san."

Nadeshiko smiled back, and it was gentle and confused and nothing like Kushina's sunny grin. That was the last image she needed to ground herself in her world again. "Ah, hello? I'm very sorry for my slow response. And I'm afraid I don't know your name...?" She reached out her hand.

The redhead trailed off, but that had less to do with her words and more to do with Mikoto placing her under a genjutsu in the few seconds it took for their hands to actually make contact. It was nothing major; she just needed the other woman to be comfortable with her... And to forget that she was supposed to be taking care of two children at that moment.

Mikoto's order from the Hokage had been unusually clear-cut for an ANBU assignment: she was to keep Haruno Nadeshiko occupied and under watch until further notice. In this case, 'occupied' meant ignorant of missing children, oblivious to disappeared husbands falling under suspicion, and unable to leave the house and meet any informant that could pull her into whatever strange plot there was revolving around her daughter and the child's disappearance with the local demon container at her side.

She smiled. "My name is Uchiha Mikoto. It's very nice to finally meet you, Haruno-san."

* * *

Hiding behind a pole across the street from the Haruno home, Hinata felt herself sinking into a familiar bubble of anxiety. It seemed that every time she had something important to say to someone, she got sidetracked or denied somehow. Sakura lived inside the house she was watching; Sakura, who knew more than anyone else in their class, who trusted her to help Naruto even after she had made the whole mess in the first place, and who could think up great plans right off the top of her head...

...Sakura, the one she desperately wanted to see. Hinata had apologies caught in her throat, for missing Sakura's birthday party and for not coming to see how she and Ino had fared with Tayuya earlier, and of course, for hurting Naruto, which she would never be able to stop apologizing for. But more important than the apologies were the confusing words she had listened in on only a little while ago.

One of her clan's elders thought that her father wasn't taking advantage of 'the Uchiha situation' properly, and especially not their connection to 'the container', a name that she had come to realize they were using for Naruto. She didn't understand a lot of the exact discussion, but she had come away with the understanding that her father was opposing their plans too strongly and the elder thought it might be in their best interests to dispatch him. While the others had protested the rashness of the decision, and eventually turned to discussing other options, the mere thought was too much for her to bear.

Hinata had given up entirely on making her father proud, and she thought that maybe, she might even hate him a little. But mostly she loved him, all faults aside, and she knew that her baby sister saw him as the sun in her world. She didn't want her father to die and she didn't want the elders to do whatever they came up with to take him out of the picture. Sakura had never really answered why she shouldn't go straight to the Hokage about what she had done on her father's orders, but she had been calmed because despite the odds, the other girl and Naruto had figured out how to fix it. This time, however... This time was something different.

She had wanted to speak to Sakura today, to maybe find some reason why this would be a bad idea, but those plans had been dashed as soon as she saw the Uchiha matriarch walk into the house. Hinata wasn't allowed to talk to any Uchiha clan members that she met (certainly not their leading lady), and it would be hard to hide that she had followed one into a house, especially whenever her guards realized that she had sneaked out of the clan compound again and came searching. She was going to be in enough trouble already.

For a moment, Hinata thought about going up to the door and knocking anyways. But she wasn't _that_ brave. She didn't know how much more she could do before her father finally snapped, so she wouldn't push her luck. Although it was a much scarier prospect than knocking on the door across from her, she thought that it was time to try and see the Hokage, or somebody at least. Who knew when she would next have the chance? It might be _never_, if that elder got his way...

* * *

Sakura felt like she was drowning in an electric current. Her throat was dry, her breath was short, and her limbs burned; yet despite her exhaustion, she was jittery. It was stronger than nervousness and deeper than any fear that she'd held before. Every nerve was telling her to _move_, to go somewhere, do something, do _anything_ other than remain as idle as she was.

Part of her brain agreed with the anxiety, but most of it had decided to listen to Naruto.

"Just stay here, okay? Catch your breath and heal yourself. He didn't leave yet, so he's definitely _somewhere_ around here, and I'm going to find him. I won't let you lose your brother again, I promise!" And just like that, he was gone. That was almost twenty minutes ago. Naruto trusted that she would stay where she was and that, more importantly, she would trust _him_ to find the sibling she held so close to her heart.

She did trust him. Sakura trusted Naruto with her life, even this eight-year-old incarnation of him. Did he even remember that he was angry at her? Or had he simply put all the blame to the side as soon as he saw that she needed whatever help she could get? For all that he was immature and sometimes a bit of a brat, this child Naruto seemed like a better person than she had been. For certain, she hadn't learned to put her friendships first until far too late in the game.

_**So we'll sit here and think this through instead of rushing off and fucking everything up.**_ It was a hard decision, but maybe it was for the best that she forced herself to step back from her single-minded determination to find Jinya. She needed the time to calm her heart and she needed to soothe her muscles so she would be ready for whatever lay ahead.

And what did lay ahead? Sakura had absolutely no clue. When she had panicked, the only thing on her mind had been to _move move move_. With even a minute's delay to calm herself, to think about the situation, she and Naruto could have left Konoha in far less obtrusive manner than they had. They could've avoided being chased and certainly they could have grabbed a water bottle or two to sip on before making their mad dash out of her home. Some rations would've helped a lot.

It was almost morning now. Had her mother discovered that they were gone? Had somebody pulled her aside to be questioned after recognizing the distinctive pink and blonde hair colors of the children running away? If they had, did they believe anything she said? Or was she being locked up in T&I at that very moment, to await the tender mercies of whoever the department's ruthless leader was for this decade?

Had her father _really_ been standing there? Or was it her flashback, super-imposing itself on reality during her panic? She had no way to know. She wasn't even sure that she _wanted_ to know. She thought she remembered the sensation of that chakra, but...

_This is too much._Closing her eyes, Sakura tilted her head back against the brick wall she sat against and finally pushed up her goggles, to press her sweat-soaked hair out of her face once more. The nearing-dawn was brighter with red tint to her glasses, and instead of reassuring her, the light only made her more nervous. What horrible situation was going transpire in the daylight instead of the dark? How would they keep from making a huge scene? Would she even care once she was in the thick of it?

Would she even _survive _once she was in the thick of it...? There were a lot of tricks up her sleeves, however short those sleeves were now, but even as a twenty-two-year-old that hadn't always helped her. She was so out of practice.

_**This isn't constructive thinking. **_Her inner-self seemed just as subdued as she was, and only a little less anxious.

_I'm breathing better, aren't I?_ And now that her mind was trying to focus on Jinya again, where _was_ Naruto?

_**He'll get here soon enough. How about you stop wasting chakra on your thighs and give your calves some attention too?**_

Sakura glanced down. _Oh, yeah._ She hadn't even noticed that she had paused over one spot in soothing her muscles. As she looked, however, she did realize how low her chakra reserves were getting. Luckily, that was something she had a found a crude but effective solution for. Naruto wouldn't be happy about it though. _Oh well._

* * *

"There is something wrong."

Jinya hadn't spoken the words out loud, but Tatsuki startled anyways when she caught sight of him walking with one hand holding the sign for that and his other hand literally resting i_nside_ his kunai pouch. His shoulders were tense and his face was set in a frown, the kind that she could only recognize because she had been his teammate for so long.

The black-haired girl fell back slightly, so that both she and Jinya brought up the rear of their group, which had only set out to travel a mere ten minutes ago. "Same thing wrong from earlier?" She signed back, keeping her eyes ahead.

Out of her peripheral vision, she caught him shaking his head. Then he very briefly brought his left hand away from his kunai pouch to make the symbol that they'd designated for Suzumushi's name. After that, he once again signed that 'something was wrong.'

Tatsuki looked ahead to their third teammate, who had taken point along with their teacher. She had to admit that Suzu _had _been acting strangely since they met their client, but it wasn't in any way that made her think the girl was being coerced. In fact it was almost impossible to coerce an Aburame because one would have to catch every individual insect in their colony with the technique as well in order to keep the insects from reporting the discrepancies to their host.

Honestly, she suspected that their stoic teammate had a crush or something. The client _was_ cute. Maybe she had seen him save a beetle or something. That would probably attract someone like Suzu. However, if Jinya thought something was wrong, there probably _was_ something off with the situation. That was the question, though: what was it?

"Think the client is a trap?" She questioned with one hand. Simultaneously, she brought the clunky goggles that each of their team had equipped themselves with down onto her face as they got closer to the swamps they'd have to cross on their way back towards Fire Country.

"Don't know." According to Suzu's insects, although the client was 'strong' in some ambiguous form, he wasn't a hostile influence. Normally, that would be enough to clear him, because the team had gotten used to relying on Suzumushi for all their general intelligence about a situation. So Jinya couldn't say why he was unsettled this time, and that was without taking into account the shivers he still got thinking of the ghost zombie thing of his father that he had encountered earlier that morning. _If_ he had actually encountered such a thing. He was hoping it was just a temporary onset of insanity (which was a lot better than a _permanent _onset of insanity.)

"Tell sensei?"

That would have been Jinya's next step if they hadn't been set upon by a unit of hunter-nin in the thirty seconds immediately after Tatsuki signed the words. There was no warning, not from any of their senses nor from Suzu's usually reliable destruction bugs.

Still, they reacted quickly: Jinya shot off three kunai before he had even fully registered what was happening, and immediately moved to cover their tense-looking client. Genma had moved faster than his students and engaged two of their six attackers, who all dressed in the thick-layered brown robes and blank masks of Mist hunter-nin. Suzu's insects rose up around them in a familiar cloud of tiny black shapes and beset one opponent, while the host herself had drawn a pair of wakizashi from somewhere beneath her large jacket and fought to keep up with the harsh blows of one shinobi. Tatsuki, meanwhile, had disappeared from sight. But that was normal.

Behind him, Jinya could practically taste how hard their client was restraining himself from moving into the fray. Although he was crouching to make himself a smaller target, his chakra was rising from the placid level that it had remained at for the entire time that team Shiranui was in his presence. Jin could feel it warping and fighting to lash out even as he raised a wall of earth in front of them to deflect a weakened water technique that went veering off course from his teacher.

The wall held up only long enough to keep the two behind it dry. As it crumbled to dust, he could hear one of the assailants releasing a loud grunt as Tatsuki shot out of the ground in front of him, stabbed a kunai into his gut, and sunk into the ground again before he could ever retaliate. That was his teammate's favorite battle technique. It was a bit amusing, since earth was the opposite of her elemental affinity.

A piercing whistle sounded from his right side, and without thinking about it, the white-haired boy dropped as close to the ground as he could, clumsily bringing his tense client down with him. He earned a chakra burn on the skin of his left arm for his troubles, but it was far better than the alternative. All across the cramped battlefield, his teammates had dropped to the ground at the same time as him, and it wasn't a second too soon; like dominos falling, an alternating series of exploding tags and smoke bombs went off blinding and injuring their unprepared opponents.

"Regroup!" Genma-sensei's voice came from the far left, so as the smoke cleared, Jinya hauled the client up and in the opposite direction of their decoy.

It was Utakata that blocked the sword that almost removed his head in complete silence. Jin had forgotten that shinobi from water country were trained to fight in low or nonexistent visibility. Jin was grateful for the save, even if it did come from the suspicious client that had acted like any other lower noble up until five minutes ago.

He didn't understand why the man hadn't just run at the first chance, but he wasn't going to complain. Mist shinobi were no friends of Konoha nin, not unless they were rebels in disguise. He doubted such was the case this time though. The rebels had no hunters, not when every last one of them had a bounty themselves.

"If you want us to try and flee, now is the time to say it," Jin felt obligated to say as the smoke cleared. He could feel Suzumushi pressing close against his back and Tatsuki off to his side. Running away seemed like the best option, with a team of chuunin and one jounin against six probably B-Class or higher opponents, but this sort of thing was up to the client.

"Flee where?" Utakata spoke up for the first time since their introduction several hours ago. Although the man drew no weapons from his wide sleeves, he did settle into a low fighting stance. "There are only more of them hiding in the woodworks."

_I'm not getting paid enough for this, _Jinya thought. He had _heard_ about mission fraud, of course, but this was his first time dealing with it. He wasn't amused.

Tatsuki shifted, and just as the smoke cleared fully, another series of explosions went off and bought them just a little bit more time before everyone had to delve into the fray again. "Genma-sensei, orders?"

"Tatsuki, fall back and use wires, play long range support. Jinya, take up ninjutsu post. Suzumushi, double up and front line with me. And you..."

"I will fight in front," Utakata interrupted smoothly, ignoring the distrustful look that he received. If he had anything to say about it, this wouldn't be his last stand. And if he were to fight near any of them, why not the Aburame girl?

"Then we move now."

There was no response or confirmation; with that statement, everyone got to their positions and prepared to meet the enemy. It didn't take much movement to have the Mist shinobi come out of hiding from the surroundings.

Jin released a mud wave and counted as he did so; there were two opponents downed, yet the number of shinobi remained at six. The reinforcements had to be waiting in the wings still, and that made him pay even closer attention to his surroundings. He knew all about sneak attacks.

He wondered who their client really was and what he'd done to earn a force so dedicated to hunting him down and eradicating him. But it was probable that he didn't really want to know.

_Doesn't matter now. Just keep him alive so you can get paid for this._

* * *

Konoha made no efforts to hide the support it gave to the rebels of Hidden Mist. Simple weaponry, food, and medicine were exported roughly twice a month to the shores of Water Country. However, that was currently the furthest extent of their support; neither their shinobi nor what passed for their diplomats had come into contact with each other outside of greeting the envoys that came to request assistance in Konoha.

That was why Jinya would probably face questioning from his teammates almost as harsh as their client would for immediately teaming up with the rebel Mist shinobi that had dropped into the battle between Team Shiranui and the half-clone, all-elite waves of hunter-nin that had been going on for what felt like forever by then. Of course, that was without taking into consideration the lava techniques that he was using all of a sudden.

Jinya had been very serious when, upon first learning how to use the Karibi bloodline, he had promised his grandmother to never reveal it unless he had no other choice. At that moment, he stood up to his knees in thick swamp earth with his jounin sensei unconscious and his teammates being pushed to their absolute limits in a fight against what seemed like an endless enemy; he thought that counted as 'no other choice', especially since his older cousin Mei had appeared.

He wished that his cousin's little team had appeared a few minutes earlier. It was still easy to recall the terror he'd felt when the air had cleared to show a fresh squadron of hunter-nin had switched out with the survivors of the first wave. It felt like the beginning of something even worse than the situation had been before, because it seemed that every attack he failed to connect only emphasized how winded and ready to just stop he was compared to his opponents.

His fear for himself had only compounded the worry that he felt for his teammates. It was hard to tell the yells and grunts apart on this battlefield, and there was no way for him to know if the bodies that fell around him were actually Tatsuki or his team leader instead of an enemy. He didn't trust the client at all either, and especially not fighting so close to Suzu. While it was undeniable that their time would likely have been decimated by now if it weren't for how frighteningly fast and brutal a fighter the lithe man was, it was also clear that without him around, they would never have been in such a situation in the first place.

Words couldn't truly describe the stress he went through when Tatsuki had screamed out Genma's name. She sounded terrified, and that was foreign. It was worse to find his path towards her blocked by another enemy. He couldn't duck around the man and seeing past him was impossible when he had to remain so focused on just staying alive. All that went through his head was a disjointed prayer and growing desperation for that seemingly infinite minute.

But that was when his cousin had appeared and brought something that looked like salvation along with her. Even with Genma down, the fight was looking brighter now. Jinya thought that maybe, with her help, they could all get out alive.

Karibi attack and defense formations, even with only two people, were more effective than any taijutsu or ninjutsu that he could use on his own. As an added bonus, neither he nor Mei needed to speak what they were about to do aloud; just looking at the other's stance and what jutsu they were about to use gave an instruction on how to respond. He was never gladder that he had gone to that reunion years ago and had the forms drilled into his muscle memory.

To his left, Mei dropped into the beginnings of beginnings of a low, sweeping kick. Jinya's body copied her before his mind caught up. The kick never completed; instead, the two of them ran through a fast series of hand seals before slamming their hands into the mud up to their wrists. He held his hands there, forcing the earth up in a twisting, looming tower, but Mei removed her hands from the ground and completed another set of seals, forcing another burst of chakra into the construction.

The pillar of earth abruptly turned red hot and formed the features of a dragon before crashing down onto a group of nin that had been herded together by a hail of sharp ice.

Jinya almost felt sorry for them, but he had no time for that. Whenever Mei moved, he aped her, and she had just flipped backwards. The movement brought him closer to Tatsuki, who was covering their downed sensei along with the young boy that had been creating ice in random places all over the battlefield for the last two minutes. He felt lucky to have teammates who trusted him; even though they were confused, Suzu and Tatsuki had taken his trust in the new shinobi onto themselves. It made things a lot easier.

All the killing and the questions were going to come back to bite him later...

A new voice rang out over the fray. "Oi, why wasn't I invited to this party?"

Before Jin could figure out who the words had come from, a giant wave of water came crashing down on all of them.

* * *

Sakura could bite really, really hard. Naruto knew this because her teeth were drawing blood where they were locked onto his hand and it was taking all of his willpower and physical strength to keep holding her in place instead of just letting her go.

His friend struggled at his front, clawing his arms and always seeming to somehow bite _harder_ than she had before, but she was the one that had _told_ him not to let her rush in as soon as they found Jinya's team. The ten or fifteen minutes that had passed since the shinobi ahead of them started battling felt like a lot longer when he had spent it dragging Sakura away from them and trying to keep her from getting killed.

Naruto had never known that Sakura _could_ even act this way, and it only got worse when the huge shark-looking man appeared and drowned the battlefield in a giant wave of water. If the fight had been closer to the city, buildings might have been damaged from the force of it. As it was, though, the few trees that had been standing went down hard and the field got a lot bigger. He and Sakura were lucky that the tree they stood behind was just barely out of range. They still got soaked though.

Sakura stopped biting his hand long enough to stare in horror at the field and scream, "Naruto no let me _go!_" But her voice was muffled because even though she had released him, he was still holding a hand over her mouth. He pulled both of them to the muddy ground anyways, just in case somebody heard her over the ruckus and decided to look.

"Sakura-chan he's _fine_," Naruto hissed back in far quieter tones, feeling frustrated at how irrational she was being. "Look, right over there, see?"

He was pointing at the highly conspicuous dome made of ice resting in the low water left by the shark-man's attack. As they both looked, Sakura remaining still purely from her own anxiety, slabs of ice seemed to flake off like sections of a scab, until the people inside were revealed. He could recognize Tatsuki, unconscious where she rested in the lap of an unknown black haired boy, and Suzumushi was wavering under the deadweight of their sensei.

Sakura was focused on the woman she recognized as her cousin Mei, who held Jinya up by the back of his collar even as he steadied himself in a standing position. Her analytical mind spotted the strange but familiar faces of Momochi Zabuza and the Mizukage's future left-hand, Chojuro, at different parts of the battlefield; she even recognized the one making the acidic, high-pressure bubbles at the far end of the field to be Utakata, who had housed the six-tails. Unfortunately, her analytical mind also hadn't been given very much attention since the first time Jinya had nearly been beheaded by a sword.

Naruto had long since recognized that she was useless when she got into a real panic, but he had to keep trying to get through to her, because he had no idea what he was doing. "Look, Sakura-chan, we only have to stay close enough that you can go save him if something happens, so can you please stop trying to run in? Just think, if you go in there he might end up getting hit anyways because he would try to protect you first! You don't want that to happen, right?"

Sakura slowly wilted in his grasp, then shook her head in suddenly subdued manner. She released her teeth from around his hand as she did so, and for some reason, the wound seemed to burn more in the air than it had under her teeth. Belatedly, Naruto took notice of her hands, and realized that she'd been scratching herself just as much as she had scratched at him.

She was scary when she panicked.

_**Is this a permanent calm or should I just shut up again?**_ her inner self asked. The older version of her appeared kneeling next to Naruto, and nothing about her expression was amused. _**What happened to those deep breaths?**_

"...What?" Sakura questioned quietly. She didn't actually remember the last half hour or so that well. One moment she'd been reminding herself to breathe, and in the next, Naruto had been telling her that he found Jinya in the middle of a big battle. And then she had... What had she done, actually? Her mouth tasted like blood.

_**Oh shit.**_

"You told me that we were going to have to do that _thing_ because you were tired and then you ran off and then I caught you and then you _bit _me," Naruto replied sullenly. He didn't have anything to wash his hand off with, so he was stuck watching the wound heal slowly and burn as it did so.

_I blacked out?_ Sakura wondered, blinking. Then she had an epiphany. _...Oh._ "We still have to do that," she responded absently.

_**I could swear the black outs didn't start for at least another year last time around.**_

Naruto felt confused. It was one thing for Sakura to completely calm down from a panic, but her complete personality flip was making him uncomfortable. It was as if she hadn't just calmed down, but also put on some kind of blinder, because now she was ignoring the fighting that had resumed ahead of them. "Are you okay?" he asked, being blunt with his concern.

"I'm fine, Naruto." Sakura pushed herself up and onto her knees, completely ignoring the mud that now coated her entire front. She grasped Naruto's bloody hand in hers and called up medical chakra to make the wound knit itself closed faster.

_I wasn't anywhere near this stressed out last time around._

Meanwhile, the blonde was feeling increasingly more nervous about his friend's mood. He didn't pull his hand away while she healed it, but at that moment, it wouldn't surprise him if Sakura suddenly drew a pair of kunai on him either. Especially since she had said that she was 'fine.' That word had a completely different meaning whenever she used it to talk about herself.

All of a sudden, Naruto's whole body jerked, and he barely managed to silence a hiss of pain. When he looked at his hand, the wound was mostly closed, but the chakra surrounding Sakura's hand had turned from the green associated with healing to a very dark shade of blue. It burned him, but he had it on good authority that Sakura was hurting more from contact with it; after all, it was _his_ naturally produced chakra that she was filtering and siphoning into herself.

This was only the third time that they had done this since Sakura accidentally discovered the technique while playing around with something Tsunade had taught the more advanced students in the Jr. Medic Corps, but it hadn't gotten any easier to deal with. Somehow, she had figured out a way to boost her own reserves when they were low by taking chakra from him. It was painful and it left both of them feeling 'echoes' of the other person for hours afterwards, but Sakura was determined to improve the technique with time.

Until then it would just have to hurt, especially since Naruto wasn't that good at saying 'no' to her.

"Do you see the shark man that just decimated all those hunter-nin in three sweeps of his sword?" Sakura asked through gritted teeth. "That man is Hoshigaki Kisame. He is an ex-Swordsman of the Mist, has the chakra stores of a tailed beast, and his sword is a chakra-draining cheese grater that turns into a giant shark. I never battled him... But I know I can't beat him. And my brother can't beat him. The man with the bandages on his face? He can't beat him. The woman with the red hair? In time she might be able to hold him off... But right now, she can't beat him. _Nobody _here can beat him, Naruto. And I... I can't stand the thought of my brother being killed by him."

When Sakura stopped pulling his chakra into herself, he was unable to keep from cringing, and neither was she. The echoes were happening already. When she looked to the side it felt like a phantom of his head moved, and he could tell that this was going to be even less pleasant than usual if they started fighting.

As she stood, Naruto looked up at her and wondered if they were just going to completely ignore her random episode of craziness where she _bit_ him and acted all insane. _Is this what Kabuto meant when he said that girls get that PMS thing and go crazy? ...How do I turn it off?_

"We're going to get closer to the battle now, Naruto. If you have to do anything at all, the _only_ thing I want you to do is watch my back. And when I say go... I mean _go_. Got it?" Suddenly, she was completely back to the Sakura that he had followed across Fire Country.

He thought he could listen to this Sakura, at least. "Got it, Sakura-chan."

* * *

So, yeah, this is a thing that happened. Also I have given up on estimating when I will update. It doesn't work. Questions? Comments? Let me have 'em.

_(This is the chapter that will push me over 1,000 reviews! I sense it!)_

**/Nothing Below This Line Is Relevant To The Story/**

So, I periodically go through all my reviews or the C2s this is in, and today, I decided to actually look at the stupidly long follower list. And you know what? _I FOLLOW SOME OF YOU! _Haha it's so cool, I suddenly feel special because there are writers I admire from bunches of fandoms like HP or FF7 or Supernatural following this. Even the Inuyasha and Naruto fandoms too, can't forget them, despite their connections to my dark middle school days. So yeah, you're cool people.

Also, I'm finally gonna give in and ask for this... **Raise a hand if you're Homestuck!** Hehe. But don't forget to comment on the actual contents of Second Bloom if you are and decide to tell me in a review instead of a PM.

Anyways, yeah, have a great day or night or whatever.


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